TROY – For the last 30 years of my professional life I have watched Michigan?s economy reach high points and unfortunately a few low points, writes John Bailey, CEO of John Bailey & Associates Public Relations. Despite the current state, I am confident that we can exceed those heights again with more diverse industries.
With the booming Technology Tri-Corridor (TTC) activities, Michigan is on track to improving our economy by making current business more robust and by adding new businesses. We will now show the world that Michigan is more than just a manufacturing state.
Beneath the headlines of the state?s weakened economy the TTC industry offers a light at the end of the tunnel with 540 new companies in the last five years, $4.8 billion and a growth rate of 165 percent in annual sales.
Originally created to diversify and supplement Michigan?s investment in the automotive industry, the TTC has become a hub of biotechnology research and business and the answer to the declining automotive industry. We can all be proud of the life science companies, which have been prospering, and making discoveries that had universal success, and have provided more than 30,000 jobs in Michigan.
Michigan is leading the nation as one of the fastest growing life science states, between 2000 and 2005, the state invested $232.5 million in life science projects, which created 103 high-tech life science companies over the past five years.
These are but a few of the TTC?s accomplishments. With Michigan now poised as a center of knowledge-based business and a top choice for people seeking careers in advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and security technology, it?s only a short period of time, until a new economic standard is formed.
This column was posted at BaileyBlog. To read other columns, click on BaileyBlog.Com
