Part of Upstate Alliance 2008 strategy involves marketing 10-county region on a global basis
By TIM GULLA Ledger Staff Writer tim@gaffneyleder.com

HAL JOHNSON Upstate Alliance president & CEO

GREENVILLE - The fall of the U.S. dollar could be Cherokee County's gain.

With the dollar declining in value against foreign currencies, it becomes cheaper for foreign companies to invest in the United States.

The Upstate Alliance of South Carolina hopes to use strong European euros and Chinese yuans to its advantage.

Detailing some of their plans for 2008 this week, officials from the Upstate Alliance, a regional marketing organization formed to sell a 10-county region of northwest South Carolina to corporate decision makers around the world, said they will place even more emphasis on selling the region outside U.S. borders in the coming year.

"It's an opportunity for everyone in the economic development business," said Hal Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the organization.

Funded by a mix of public and private dollars, Upstate Alliance representatives will hawk the region at almost 30 different events and trade shows around the country and world in the coming year. Johnson said the seven-year-old organization's plans for 2008 call for at least one trade mission to China, as well as regional representation at industrial and corporate trade events in England and Germany, where they can target companies looking to expand in the United States.

Their goals are simple; to give the region more exposure than any one of the 10 counties could generate on its own and to bring more jobs into the region while maintaining existing jobs through the promotion of area businesses.

Among existing businesses in the 10-county region are 240 international companies representing 24 countries.

While any new job is a good job in a competitive marketplace, the organization is particularly focused on attracting five industries it deems best suited to the region's workforce and attributes: automotive, advanced materials, life sciences, plastics and allied chemicals, and logistics.

Cherokee County, a member of the 10-county marketing organization, contributed $26,269 to the Upstate Alliance's $1.3 million operating budget for 2007. Participating counties pay the organization 50 cents per resident, up to a cap of $50,000 a year.

"We get a lot of bang for the buck," said Jim Cook, executive director of the Cherokee County Development Board.

Prospects generated by the Upstate Alliance generally are passed to economic development agencies in the counties that best fit a prospective employers needs for land, services or access, so the county-based agencies can get into specific negotiations.

Cook said roughly 75 percent of the prospects he receives are generated by the Upstate Alliance and the state Department of Commerce. "They (the Upstate Alliance) are our marketing tool," he said.

Bericap LLC, the first tenant signed up for the new Upstate Corporate Industrial Park, for instance, resulted from Upstate Alliance marketing efforts, Cook said.

The recent additions of automotive supplier Benteler and Gordon Food Service, both in Spartanburg County, also resulted from the organization's marketing.