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Emily Featherston
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Emily Featherston
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Emily Featherston
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Emily Featherston
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Emily Featherston
The September Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce luncheon welcomed a speaker and a Vestavia Hills resident with a long commute: Montgomery.
Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield's office is next door to the state capitol, but he said he could never bring himself to relocate.
"Man is it great to be home," he said to a room full of laughs.
Canfield has served in his role in the state development office since 2011, and served in the state legislature before that.
Canfield said he wanted to enlighten Chamber members about the work his office does, and what that economic development means for the state.
"We do an awful lot," he said.
Economic development on the state level is a big, lumbering enterprise, he said, and like a large ship, it needs to be guided slowly and measuredly.
"And I have a great team that is with me every step of the way," he said.
On major issue Canfield said his office is combatting is "brain drain," where young professionals leave the state because they don't see opportunity for growth at home. He said that his office hopes to create more career development awareness, raise and cultivate talent within the state's young people and support career counseling and apprenticeship programs throughout the state.
Canfield said that all of these efforts are part of revamping and updating the state's strategic plan with regard to economic development, which he said is only good if it is viable and measurable.
"At the end of the day, we believe in results," he said.
Some of the results he relayed to chamber members included $20.2 billion in capital investments and the addition of 75,000 jobs in the 2012 to 2015 time period.
While additions in 2016 put the state back at pre-recession levels, Canfield said, "We've still got a long way to go."
Canfield also described the developments and results within the auto and aerospace industries, which he thinks will continue to be major drivers in the state's economic future.
Everything he presented, Canfield said, is part of the state's rebranding effort and push toward more high-tech and knowledge based industries.
"We want to do and make great things in Alabama," he said.
