For the second time in five years, Tennessee has been awarded the 2007 Site Selection Competitiveness Award. Site Selection, one of the nation’s leading economic development magazines, presents the award each year to the state economic development agency that has the most points across 10 criteria that measure business activity.
The editors of Site Selection developed the Competitiveness Award in 2003 as a way of comparing economic development on an equal basis between large and small states. In addition to considering per capita investment and job growth, the selection committee also looked at the rankings of each state’s large and small communities in the magazine’s annual rating of top metros, the state’s business climate and economic trends from 2005 to 2007.
“Tennessee’s leadership has taken important steps to make its business climate competitive,” said Mark Arend, editor-in-chief of Site Selection. “These include reforming the workers’ compensation program, creation of the Jobs Cabinet, retooling incentives and other programs at ECD’s disposal and revamping community-development programs to make Tennessee communities more competitive. These and other measures are clearly working, and they have contributed substantially to Tennessee’s strong performance in our annual state competitiveness ranking.”
The award marks a strong year for Tennessee’s performance according to Site Selection writers and editors. In February, Tennessee placed third in the magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup issue, ranking states on capital investment and job creation for the year 2007.
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