Marine business recruitment update

North Carolina continues to have marine businesses knocking on our door and kicking our tires. We are currently working with about 40 marine companies (boat builders and product manufacturers) and beginning to understand the draw and the criteria that these companies use to decide in favor of North Carolina. The key factors that seem to tip relocation in our direction are:

• available workforce with manufacturing experience (unfortunately available due to non-marine manufacturing losses in cities across the state)
  
• water-access locations
  
• our central east coast location - along the eastern boating corridor with growing boat markets north and south
  
• 12-months of ice-free operations, repair and commissioning options
  
• our east-west highways for access to both non-coastal states and international trade through our ports
  
• our program's products for construction networking provided to North Carolina businesses that match our 120+ builders' construction needs with over 1,000 marine product providers
  
• the strong commitment from the state for job tax credits and employee training through our community colleges
  
• developing and existing marine trades training programs like NC MARTEC and the COA marine technology programs
  
• a range of state, regional, and community incentives that try to match community needs with company "wants"