Chris Chung Regionalism Presentation 

On March 29, Chris Chung, CEO of the North Carolina Economic Development Partnership, will address the numbers that really count in achieving regional economic development.

Chung last spoke to the Forum in September 2015. That presentation was given nine months after he left the Missouri Partnership, which he had served for seven years.

In 2015 Chung said that the number of opportunities that came before his organization in North Carolina is exponentially greater than what he experienced in Missouri.

“The biggest difference is in the number of deals where they want you to compete — data centers, advanced manufacturing. I’m amazed at how often the phone rings,” he said at the time.

The positive numbers continue. North Carolina ranked first in Site Selection magazine’s “Prosperity Cup” competition for the third straight year in 2018. The award recognizes the most competitive state-level economic development groups, was presented to the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, which lead business recruitment efforts on behalf of the state. States rounding out the top five in the 2018 Prosperity Cup are Tennessee (2), Georgia (3), Texas (4) and Michigan (5).

“The fundamentals that have been drawing companies for a long time really haven’t changed much,” Chung told Site Selection. “These include a great quality of life, well-renowned educational institutions and population growth with a lot of people coming out of school or mid-career who are moving here with a job or in search of one, all of which deepens the talent pool. We get a lot of in-migration from the Midwest and the Northeast.”

The March 29 program will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park.

The program will follow the usual Forum format of 45 minutes of networking followed by the presentation. The event is free to attend, but registration is required.