March 17 – Despite today’s troubling economic times, there is one region of the country that is still on the move attracting big new business investments and creating the jobs of the future. It’s happening in our very own Tennessee Valley Corridor. And our astounding success did not just happen by accident.

Nearly fifteen years ago at a regional economic development summit I convened in Oak Ridge, a core group of East Tennessee leaders began working together to link and leverage the many science, technology, education and business assets we have in the Tennessee Valley for new regional job creation.

Three of our focus areas we identified at that first summit were transportation, energy and next-generation manufacturing. Not only because we already had existing regional assets and a strong workforce we could leverage in those three areas, but also because we recognized that those three business sectors would be so important to America’s economic future.

Now, thanks to that clear vision, the strong partnerships we have put together and the hard work by so many dedicated leaders, our efforts have paid off BIG -- with two new billion dollar business investments in the heart of our high-tech Corridor in just the past few months, even in the midst of a national recession.

Most recently, Wacker Chemie AG, a Munich, Germany-based company, announced in late February that it had purchased 550 acres in Bradley County, Tenn., to build a new plant to produce polycrystalline silicon, the primary component in solar wafers, solar panels and semi-conductors. Phase One of this new Wacker solar energy plant will bring a projected $1 billion capital investment and will create at least 500 to 600 new jobs initially, while also pushing Tennessee to the forefront of the nation’s new solar energy playing field.

Just as noteworthy, this new Wacker plant is only 20 miles to the north of the new $1 billion Volkswagen auto assembly plant that is currently under construction in Chattanooga, which is projected to create thousands of new next-generation manufacturing and supply jobs at a time of rising unemployment across the nation and in too many other parts of our state.

The world’s businesses are, of course, looking to Tennessee for new business investment because our location is good, our workforce is first-rate, and our taxes are low. But they are also looking our way because we are working together to imagine the future -- and then working smarter to make it happen.

What first started as a small regional summit in Oak Ridge has now grown nearly 15 years later to become a national award-winning regional economic development organization uniting 10 congressional districts across five states, all working together to demonstrate “national leadership through regional cooperation” and to create the jobs of the future. Having come full circle, the Tennessee Valley Corridor National Technology Summit will be returning to Oak Ridge this May 27-28 for the first time since it all began there in 1995.

But we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. The national economic climate is tough and too many families in our state are still hurting.

Now is the time to double our efforts to grow and attract the jobs of the future, to put more folks back to work, to grow our state economy, to keep our taxes low, to create new opportunities so our kids and grandkids can stay here close to home and to boost family incomes for all Tennesseans.