Raleigh – It’s no exaggeration to say that 2023 could be a sensational year for economic business adoption in North Carolina. Not a boast, but a latent fact. So says Christopher Chan, head of Economic Development Partnerships in North Carolina.
What about 100,000+ jobs?
And a $110 billion+ business investment?
Economic concerns, including inflation and a possible recession, could impact companies’ 2023 targets, but at the moment, deal talks are continuing at a pace well above the 2022 record.
NC’s industry recruiters have a project pipeline full of opportunities going into 2023, with nearly four times as many new jobs and business investment opportunities as last year, Chung told WRAL TechWire. And he said 2022 will be a record year for state projects.
Chris Chan (left) of the North Carolina Economic Development Partnership.
Trading with Wolfspeed and more [chips]VinFast (electric vehicle), Boom Aviation and several life science projects announced in 2022.
The state is already ranked #1 for business by CNBC. More awards are likely to be awarded as the project pipeline creates a reality of economic growth.
Can 2023 Surpass 2022?
“Our team is looking forward to 2023,” Chung said.
“We carry approximately 234 active projects into the new year, representing a potential capital expenditure of $111.64 billion and a potential total employment of 100,870.
“So it is still a very busy time for our team working together on these opportunities. [the North Carolina Department of] Commerce and many local partners across the state.
“2022 was another record year, and we are confident that North Carolina will continue to build momentum in 2023.”
In a 2022 talk, Chung said EDPNC secured:
- Earned projects –
- Capital Expenditure – $15.55 billion
- Jobs Created – 26,940
However, not all projects adopted for the state were successful. Some of the victories announced by the Department of Commerce did not include his EDPNC participation, making the overall number even higher. [Commerce has not responded to WRAL TechWire requests for comment.]
“During our regular year-end audit of completed projects, we noticed that Toyota’s expansion, announced in early September, was included in the winning column,” Chung explains. “We were involved in the expansion, but it was only peripheral, so we marked the project as successful without EDPNC’s help. always pays attention.
“Last week we reported year-to-date investment totaling $17.83 billion and employment of 27,006 people. At $15.55 billion, there are 26,940 jobs.Note that Toyota’s expansion will continue to be reflected in the Department of Commerce total.”
More awards coming?
North Carolina is building quite a winning streak.
For 2021, the state has secured 174 economic development projects. These projects are expected to create more than 23,000 jobs for her residents and involve capital investment of about $10 billion.
In 2020, North Carolina created over 20,000 new jobs and over $6 billion in investment.
The state has already won the Economic Development Award in the last two years. 2022 performance could bring even more.
in numbers
During the Q&A, Chung talked about economic development challenges and more.
- What’s different about hiring in 2022?
In July, CNBC was named the top state for business in North Carolina America in 2022. This added to an already very positive perception of North Carolina’s business environment. One of the standout factors CNBC noted was the way state leaders worked together to attract these big projects when it came to economic development, especially the “game-changing” deals. North Carolina’s leaders—the Governor, the Secretary of Commerce, the General Assembly, and the EDPNC Board—continued to work together in a bipartisan fashion to win these huge projects for the state.
2022 will also see a notable increase in the frequency and size of business recruitment projects (i.e., planned job creation and investment), heavily skewed towards industrial users in advanced manufacturing, food and beverage processing, and logistics/distribution. was seen Projects with capital expenditures exceeding $1 billion were relatively rare until as recently as three to four years ago, but at any point in 2022 there will be at least a dozen projects of that size.
- If so, what made it more difficult, and how did NC adapt its tactics to beat the competition?
We let the states speak for themselves. North Carolina outperforms the competition in many ways, including a world-class education system, a highly skilled workforce, and the most competitive tax environment for businesses. Businesses recognize and take advantage of how great our state is for doing business. Looking ahead, his one challenge in acquiring large, innovative projects such as Toyota, VinFast, and Wolfspeed is that, with these victories announced and resulting megasite inventories dwindling, the remaining It was that the megasite options were even more limited. We can present it to other companies who are still considering advanced manufacturing facilities in North Carolina.
- Have NC fundraising incentives made a big difference, such as encouraging multiple large companies? Will there be any such changes in 2023?
As noted earlier, replenishing inventories at megasites statewide has essentially halved over the past year due to a series of major project announcements placed at such sites, but it is possible It is an issue that we want to take as far in advance as possible.As such, we continue to work on the megasite identification initiative imposed upon us by the Governor [Roy Cooper]Commerce, and General Assembly.
We have partnered with a nationally active site selection consulting firm to help narrow down potential new megasites to 4-6 out of about 30 submissions received from across the state. The goal is to present candidates for these megasites to the General Assembly. This allows you to consider how much development funding you need to set aside to start getting those sites ready to go to market. Virginia, just one example of another competing state focused on this “product development” issue, has announced her $350 million commitment to preparing megasites. This shows the state’s growing interest in securing the necessary sites to accommodate these transformative economic development contracts. .
- How has working with the Department of Commerce impacted site adoption and retention?
Whether it is business recruitment, expansion of existing industries, international trade and export support, small business entrepreneurship counseling, or travel and tourism promotion, everything we do at EDPNC is thanks to our extensive network of partners with whom we work every day. Completely dependent. When it comes to hiring and growing your business, no partner is more important to our success than Commerce.
By working closely with the secretary [Machelle Baker] Sanders and her team, like many of our local, regional and private sector partners, strive to unite in the companies we work with every day. It has been a key component of the success we have enjoyed as a state and we look forward to maintaining this strong teamwork as we seize the opportunities presented to us in 2023.
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