Raleigh- Gov. Mike Easley today announced that North Carolina, for the third consecutive year and the sixth in the last seven, is the state with the “Top Business Climate” according to Site Selection magazine. Site Selection is one of the nation’s premier magazines for economic development, providing expansion planning information to more than 44,000 corporate executives.

“Corporate executives know North Carolina is listening to them and we understand what they need to succeed,” Easley said. “We are investing in education to provide a skilled workforce, making regulation and permit procedures clear and reasonable, and offering a low state and local tax burden. All these make our state the top choice for companies looking to grow.”

Site Selection magazine’s annual “Top Business Climate” rankings are based on quantative and qualitative factors that corporate site-seekers say they consider most important: Fifty percent comes from a survey of corporate site selection executives who were asked to rank their top 10 states and 50 percent is based on four measures of new plant activity as tracked by Site Selection in its “New Plant Database.” According to the magazine, the ranking “is a blend of objective, actual new or expansion project announcements, and subjective input from corporate site seekers.”

North Carolina’s continued leadership in the biopharmaceutical area is one reason for its 2007 success, according to Site Selection’s editors. During the last 12 months, three major companies that perform clinical trials and device testing for drug and healthcare companies (INC Research, PRA International, and Quintiles) announced plans to locate or expand in the Research Triangle Park area. The companies’ plans call for them to create a combined total of more than 2,500 jobs. In addition, the state opened the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education center on the N.C. State University Centennial Campus in September.

“A significant number of corporate investors in North Carolina cited the state’s quality of life, favorable business climate and access to top-notch academic and research facilities in our recent survey of site selectors,” said Site Selection Editor-in-Chief Mark Arend. “The Department of Commerce deserves credit, as well, as an executive interviewed for our November cover story makes clear.”

Other growing sectors in the state noted by the magazine include boat building (Brunswick Corp. announced plans earlier this year to build pleasure boats in the Eastern part of the state, creating more than 800 jobs), aerospace (Honda announced that North Carolina will serve as the headquarters for its jet manufacturing operations) and military and defense-related industries such as Force Protection, which decided in July to build mine-and-blast-resistant vehicles in Roxboro.

The article about North Carolina’s No. 1 ranking can be found at: www.siteselection.com.

Paid for by the Mike Easley Committee