Consultants Recognize States’ Industrial Competitiveness in Area Development Magazine’s 5th Annual “Top States for Doing Business” Survey — Georgia Ranks Number 1
Westbury, NY (PRWEB) September 17, 2014 -- Area Development, the leading publication covering site selection and facility planning, has announced the results of its 2014 Top States for Doing Business survey of leading location consultants. According to the results, the top-10 states for doing business are Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and Mississippi, in that order.
Area Development asked a select group of highly respected location consultants who work with a nationwide client base to name their top-5 state choices in 18 site selection categories, as follows:
Business environment
• Overall cost of doing business
• Incentives programs
• Corporate tax environment
• Cooperative state government
• Access to capital and project funding
• Speed of permitting
• Most favorable regulatory environment
Labor climate
• Availability of skilled labor
• Competitive labor costs
• Labor climate (Right-to-Work)
• Labor climate (non-Right-to-Work)
• Leading work force development programs
Infrastructure/global access
• Distribution/supply chain hubs
• Rail & highway access
• Certified sites/shovel-ready programs
• Competitive utility rates
• Energy reliability/smart grid deployment
• Water outlook (availability & cost)
States were ranked in each of the 18 categories above based on the number of times they were named as a “top-5” choice by the responding consultants. Georgia, which was cited 265 times overall, led all other states as the consultants’ #1 choice for doing business. Texas and South Carolina also received more than 200 mentions.
A full review of this year’s Top States for Doing Business, along with commentary on the results from several well-respected consultants to industry, is presented in the Q3 issue of Area Development magazine and is posted online at http://www.areadevelopment.com/top-states.
Area Development is published quarterly and also maintains several highly visited websites, which can be reached through its website: http://www.areadevelopment.com. It also has produced more than 30 Best Practices Consultants Forums for economic developers since 2006.
Gerri Gambale, Area Development, http://www.areadevelopment.com, 516-338-0900, [email protected]
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