Last week various state economic development officials were applauding the result of the state’s www.mass-exodus.com campaign, maintaining that it was attracting Massachusetts companies to Rhode Island and that more would be announced soon.
But at the same time, these officials acknowledged that they weren’t talking about a huge influx, and that when it came to information technology workers, Rhode Island was still lagging behind neighboring states, still trying to attract employees and companies to our state.
In this week’s interview, David J. Livingston, Ph.D., executive director of the Slater Center for Biomedical Technology, said that bio-med, with great potential for employment here, accounts for an infinitesimal number of jobs, in the hundreds maybe. And if Rhode Island is to attract new bio-med companies, he said, it needs to have the infrastructure to support it.
The same was being said of high-tech, where companies have recently shied away from coming to Rhode Island because it doesn’t have enough class A space and smart buildings, those wired for high-tech, to be able to support these companies.
Some good news came last week, when Gov. Lincoln Almond announced that Cox Communications was bringing fiber optics to Quonset/Davisville. Much more is needed.
Our officials are quick to tell us of an award-winning Web site (mass-exodus), but we are quick to understand that it’s not awards that attract companies, but a sound infrastructure, with a strong business climate and an adequate inventory of facilities standing ready and waiting for the companies when they arrive.
