For years, many of us have gotten hung up on where our city and state ranked on various lists—and the news usually wasn’t good. Things looked up in 2009. For instance:
• Forbes ranked Baton Rouge 10th best on its “America’s Fastest-Recovering Cities” ranking;
• Our city placed 18th on Milken Institute’s “Best-Performing Cities” Index, up from 40th in 2008;
• The Brookings Institution rated the Capital Region’s economic performance among the 20 strongest in the nation for the third quarter of 2009;
• Southern Business & Development magazine named Baton Rouge “Mid-Market of the Year,” and;
• NewGeography.com and Forbes ranked Baton Rouge seventh best in the 2009 list of “Best Mid-sized Cities for Jobs.”
State economic highlights for 2009
Despite the “doom and gloom” you read in The Advocate about our state and governor, Bobby Jindal’s secretary of economic development, Stephen Moret, reports that Louisiana has continued a trend that began early in 2008, with our state’s economy in 2009 once again outperforming the South and the nation.
Recently, Moret shared the following facts:
• Unemployment rates remained well below that of the South and the nation, and employment held relatively stable, down about 1% since January 2008 versus about 5% for the South and the nation overall.
• Despite the national recession, business development results in Louisiana for 2009 were even better than in 2008, which itself was an award-winning year. Dozens of companies announced significant expansions or relocations in 2009, kicking off projects that will result in more than 21,000 new jobs, $2.5 billion in new capital investment, $53 million per year in new state tax revenues and billions of dollars in new sales for small businesses.
• Recent corporate headquarters successes continued, with several expansions, as well as new additions to the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 lists.
• National rankings improved again, while new programs and policy reforms increased Louisiana’s economic competitiveness. Although the nation awaits a significant jobs recovery, Louisiana is well positioned to secure new business investment in 2010 and will experience significant job growth from projects announced in 2008 and 2009.
Blue Oceans ahead
Under Jindal’s leadership, Moret said, “LED is pursuing targeted initiatives to increase Louisiana’s economic competitiveness, retain Louisiana’s existing economic-driver firms, support small business development, and cultivate new growth industries.”
In 2010, Moret announced, “LED’s signature initiative will be to finalize and begin aggressive execution of a new Blue Ocean target industry initiative, the ultimate goal of which is to position Louisiana to grow jobs at a rate faster than the South and the U.S. on a regular basis. The Blue Ocean initiative is a strategy project designed to: [a] identify the state’s best narrowly defined growth industries of the future [industries with significant growth potential in which no states have yet cemented a commanding leadership position]; and [b] develop and execute action plans to cultivate each of these sectors.”
Preliminary targets of the Blue Ocean initiative include these industry segments:
• Digital media/software development [including selected segments within health care IT, education IT, video-game development, and possibly eReaders];
• Next-generation automotive manufacturing [e.g., electric vehicles, composites manufacturing];
• Specialty health care [medical corridor[s], obesity/diabetes research and treatment, pharmaceutical manufacturing];
• Renewables and energy efficiency [green building/manufacturing, hydropower, algae-based energy production, nuclear power module manufacturing];
• Water management [developing a world-class water-management industry—become the “Netherlands of the U.S.”];
• Next wave oil & gas [ultra-deepwater oil, unconventional natural gas, enhanced oil recovery];
Do you see opportunity for your company in 2010? Sail on.
Answer to the question
Advocate Capitol Bureau chief Mark Ballard calls his Sunday column “Political Horizons,” but I suggest he consider changing it to “Political Whine,” because that’s usually all it is.
His recent column was titled “Media wonder, where’s Bobby?” Ballard was complaining that Jindal prefers traveling to small towns to have town hall meetings with citizens and leaving aides to discuss his policies. Ask any of those small-town folk if any of them are complaining.
Ballard called Bob Mann, who was communications director for Gov. Kathleen Blanco, to get him to chime in. Mann said, “Does this guy really exist? Did this guy leave the country and no one told us? Because you never actually see him anywhere unless you’re at some rural church. He’s never actually available to speak to the press.” If Mann hadn’t noticed, Jindal is always right there prior to and during a hurricane or disaster, speaking directly to the press and the people—completely in charge and informed, impressively hands-on and leading the way. Quite unlike his predecessor, Mr. Mann.
Ballard then called upon Marsanne Golsby, who handled the press for Gov. Mike Foster. She said, “We operated first and foremost on the principle that we were being paid by the taxpayers and they have a right to know what we’re doing.” But Golsby failed to mention—and Ballard knows it—that Foster preferred to talk to the press, causing many to complain because he never would travel to even north Louisiana, much less out-of-state for economic development. Foster said, “That’s what telephones are for.” Handling the press by phone was the easy way of constituent contact. But you ask any of those folks attending the town halls with Jindal if they prefer hearing from him direct and in person or reading his comments in the newspaper. It’s no contest. They certainly don’t feel sorry for Mr. Ballard being lonely in the Capitol basement.
So, now we have the answer to Ballard’s question: Where’s Bobby? Right where the people want him to be. With them.
Saints fans rewarded
There are no fans more deserving of a Super Bowl championship than those in New Orleans and Louisiana. Since the team’s first season in 1967, Saints fans have shown their loyalty through many losing seasons—only to be right back in the stands cheering the following year.
The Crescent city and our state have become electric over this season’s success and anticipation of a Super Bowl trip. We are proud of the Saints and their fans and hope they achieve the ultimate goal—champions.
Looking toward 2010
I hope you and your family had a safe and Merry Christmas and want to wish you a prosperous and blessed new year. I am optimistic about 2010 and encourage you to embrace the change ahead and make the best of it.
