Six of the eight Hyundai supplier companies which have come to Alabama since the first of this year have located in our Senate district.

These include Shin Young Metal Company which has already broken ground in Crenshaw County, Hwashin Limited and Hyundai Hysco which will locate in Butler County, Sejong Industrial Company and Daehan Solution Company which selected Lowndes County, and the largest company, Venture Industries, which will make Autauga County its home.

The two that &uot;got away&uot; are Halla Climate Control Corporation which went to Macon County and HS R&A Company which selected Coffee County.

According to the commitments which have been made by these companies, a total of 2,375 new jobs will be created, 1,825 of which will be in the 30th Senatorial District.

This is a lot of opportunities for many families.

It should mean stable employment at reasonably good wages and perhaps most important of all, the opportunity to stay near home.

When I was growing up in Crenshaw County, it was commonplace for many relatives to live nearby each other, and I think this made for more close-knit families than the situation where sons and daughters are scattered throughout the United States.

Many people have left home because they could not find a job adequate to support their families and especially is that true in rural south Alabama.

So a number of good things could come from the economic growth that is expected from the expansion of the automobile industry in Alabama.

I wish I could take credit for all of these new plants selecting my Senate district, but the truth is that we have some outstanding industrial development recruiters in our area who have done an exceptionally good job in selling our region to these new Alabamians.

Included among these economic development leaders, in my opinion, are Doni Ingram in Luverne, Connie Bainbridge in Prattville, and Marsha Gaylard in Troy.

They are ably assisted by strong mayors, local governing bodies and industrial development boards, all of whom have pitched in and carried the load to get these industries.

I have done what I could at the state level to see that we get our fair share of industrial development support grants for infrastructure and incentives to help attract these industries.

I do consider economic development a key to future growth in the state of Alabama.

Unfortunately Mexico and other low wage counties have siphoned off much of our manufacturing plants and the current &uot;hot ticket&uot; is automobile assembly plants.

This past week I spent two days with industrial development leaders from throughout our Senate district and other parts of the state at the annual meeting of the Economic Development Association of Alabama.

The director of the Alabama Development Office, Neal Wade, gave an update on the status of programs through his office which are available to attract new industry.

It is evident that he and his excellent staff are doing an outstanding job with the resources they have.

Southern Business and Development magazine recently named Alabama as its 2003 State of the Year and the Hyundai project its Deal of the Year.

We are obviously being recognized nationally for our successes in this area.

So I say to all of the Alabama team, keep up the good work!

Until next time, remember &uot;I’ll go with you or I’ll go for you&uot; to help you solve any problem related to state government.

Senator Wendell Mitchell can be reached at 334-242-7883, or by writing to P O Box 225, Luverne, Alabama 36049.