MDA: Speed, risk and money all keys to statewide economic development

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - So you’re an economic development person, and you want to see all the green space in a local industrial park full of companies with lots of jobs and revenue coming in.

Bill Cork with the Mississippi Development Authority says there are three factors that can make that happen. He spoke to Gulf Coast Business Council members on Thursday.

“Speed, risk and money are what corporations across the world, when they’re looking for site selections, are focused on,” Cork said. “That speed is really how quickly they can go from spending money to making money the fastest, and that’s really the new incentive, the speed. The faster we can get them here, the faster they can make money, the faster we can all benefit.

“We’ve got about 32 sites around the state including about seven or eight down here in the Coastal area, that are really prime for development.”

Cork says they’d like to see more high-tech companies come in and cement their place in South Mississippi, but he says right now, manufacturing and building things are what make the Mississippi economic engine run.

“We make things in Mississippi, and that’s really what our core strength is, and that’s what a lot of the companies that look at Mississippi see.”

Cork also says the state needs even more industrial-ready sites and more workers to fill those potential jobs.

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