News
Officials Talk High-Tech in Calif.
July 12, 2010 -- The Daily Gazette
View the original publication
CAPITAL REGION — Regional economic development officials are in California this week to promote Tech Valley to high-tech companies considering following GlobalFoundries into the region.
The Center for Economic Growth and officials from some local economic development agencies are attending Semicon West, a major semiconductor industry trade show that starts today and runs through Thursday in San Francisco.
“The significance of the recent investments in the Capital Region [headlined by GlobalFoundries Fab 8] makes our investment in such strategic industry events more important than ever,” said Brian Hannafin, CEG’s senior vice president.
The CEG GlobalFoundries is building a $4.2 billion computer chip factory at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta.
GlobalFoundries have yet to announce which companies it will be buying its manufacturing tools from, but is expected to make decisions soon.
Economic development officials from Saratoga and Warren counties arrived last week to begin meeting with potential supply companies.
“We are finding that more companies are aware of Saratoga County and are exploring the potential for expansion into our region,” Saratoga Economic Development Corp. President Dennis Brobston said from California on Monday.
Brobston said his group has met with three of the five largest tool companies, and is talking up the benefits of a “central location” to firms that might also supply the established chip plants in East Fishkill, Dutchess County, and near Burlington, Vt.
But he said the travel is as much about networking as selling companies on specific sites.
“The [GlobalFoundries] project has definitely brought us to the forefront of the industry,” Brobston said. “People out here are looking for information, but they also want to have a relationship.”
Also along on the trip is John Wheatley, an economic development specialist representing Warren County.
While the Center for Economic Growth is represented at Semicon West every year, this is the first time in several years that the EDC of Warren County has sent someone.
“I think the fact that we are just 15 or 20 minutes up the road [from Luther Forest] has definitely opened doors for us,” Wheatley said.
Warren County has two “shovel-ready” business parks, he said, and may be able to develop new leads from playing up the existing cluster of advanced medical device makers around Glens Falls.
Officials will also be attending Intersolar, a photovoltaic industry trade show occurring at the same time at Semicon West, also inside San Francisco’s Moscone Center.
The computer chip and photovoltaic industries share a number of contractors and suppliers, and local officials believe the work being done by the state Energy Research and Development Authority could help bring solar cell manufacturing to the Capital Region.
F. Michael Tucker, president of the Center for Economic Growth, said it is costing about $150,000 to attend the trade show. The money comes from business donations and other sources.
Tucker said his organization represents an 11-county area that will see benefit as the tech industry expands in the Capital Region.
