14A • Sunday, September 30, 2012 • Daily Corinthian
Submitted photos
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (far left) chats with Alliance President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Chandler during a recent economic development trip to Japan. Gary Chandler (above, third from right) poses with the Mississippi delegation to the SEUS-Japan Conference in Tokyo, including Gov. Phil Bryant (second from left). Gary Chandler visits with Masato (Max) Yamanami, (above right) general manager with TMA-Japan, Toyota Motor Corporation.
JAPAN CONTINUED FROM 1A
driven by personalities, but he’s seen a shift over the past decade toward a more data driven approach to site selection for corporations. His conversations with executives in Japan reinforced this idea that they are looking for concrete information showing how their company will benefit from locating in a specific area and what resources will be available to them. The companies want to see details on the availability of qualified workers, the readiness of the potential site or building, what utilities and other services are available at the site now and what the costs will be to get their project up and running at the site in question. Chandler said they’re also strongly interested in how quickly a site or location can be made ready to begin production. “Speed is of the necessity,” he said. Chandler said the availability of a qualified labor force and buildings or sites that are immediately ready for development are key factors the executives are focusing on in choosing sites for new development. The opportunity to meet with executives from Toyota’s suppliers was especially important. Chandler said it’s important to understand that the growth of the
supplier infrastructure connected to the Toyota plant at Blue Springs will be a very long-term process that will take as much as two decades to mature. The goal is to plant seeds and build and nurture relationships with these companies now that will hopefully lead to opportunities for future economic development. “This is a long term process. We’re planting seeds now that will hopefully bear fruit in the future,” he said. Chandler said the Alliance and its leadership saw the Japan trip as a unique opportunity that they had to take advantage of when it arose. He noted The Alliance functions as a public-private partnership with funding coming from both the City of Corinth and Alcorn County as well as the membership made up of private companies and individuals in the community. He said they are very mindful of their responsibility to spend the community’s funds wisely and while they haven’t done much international travel in the past, this trip was an unusual and valuable opportunity that they believe will pay direct dividends in the future. He also noted they were able to offset a great deal of the cost thanks to funding from the private sector that was provided directly to support the cost of the trip.
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