One important strategy for addressing Connecticut”™s economic challenges is to identify other states”™ best practices and determine which might effectively be replicated here.
During Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s economic summit in Hartford earlier this month, several experts cited North Carolina”™s Research Triangle as an example of what forward-thinking economic policy can accomplish.
There, a partnership among state government, private industry and academia begun in 1959 created a physical infrastructure near three major universities designed to attract R&D-oriented companies. Today, Research Triangle Park comprises more than 170 companies with 38,000 employees.
Connecticut is making strides toward the North Carolina model. Our outstanding universities and diverse economic base ”“ what Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter calls an “enormous breadth of sophisticated businesses” ”“ make it likely that Bioscience Connecticut in Farmington, the technology park in Storrs and Yale”™s efforts to support growth in the greater New Haven region (particularly in the biosciences) will lead to a “research triangle” of our own.
Often overlooked in discussions of North Carolina”™s economic transformation, however, is that the Tar Heel State is one of the most business-friendly in the nation, placing third, for example, in CNBC”™s America”™s Top States for Business 2011 rankings.
Based on 10 criteria, including business costs and regulatory environment, the same rankings put Connecticut at 39th.
North Carolina”™s success, then, stems largely from its willingness to attract and nurture economic-base industries by not micromanaging them with unnecessary regulations or adopting policies that add to their costs.
Replicating that is Connecticut”™s toughest challenge and most critical economic imperative. While we can learn from best practices and are fortunate to have such a dynamic economic base, we will not move forward if we don”™t support that base and remove barriers to its growth.
I am hopeful that Gov. Malloy”™s jobs tour, economic summit and special legislative session signal the beginning of a strong effort to adopt policies that change the perception of Connecticut as unfriendly to business.
The question isn”™t whether we know what steps to take but whether we have the political will to take them.
John R. Rathgeber is president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association in Hartford. Reach him at john.rathgeber@cbia.com.
