Minnesota manufacturers are cutting payrolls, bidding low and scrambling to compete with the giant threat of cheap labor and enhanced manufacturing facilities offered in China, according to a recent survey of Greater Minnesota manufacturing companies.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty recently unveiled a plan to help make Minnesota a leader in biosciences. Governor Pawlenty says the state's history, expertise and economic infrastructure make it better prepared than most other states to capitalize on the bioscience industry.

Despite an economic slowdown, the Twin Cities is more competitive than it was a year ago, according to a study released by the Great North Alliance, a regional civic leadership organization. Conducted annually, the Great North Opportunity Forecast uses regional productivity and innovation to predict future competitiveness and opportunity.

While rural regions strive to establish basic high-speed Internet connections, larger cities such as St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Roanoke, Va., are looking to establish free, wireless Internet access across several blocks to encourage economic development. Recent reports show efforts are underway to speed the technology's deployment in each of the metro areas.

Jacques Koppel, president of Minnesota Technology, Inc. since 1991, announced his resignation on July 28. Under Mr. Koppel's leadership, MTI worked with more than 5,600 manufacturing and technology companies around Minnesota, helping the state's economy realize gains of more than $700 million in the process.

Minnesota Technology Inc. has hired Wayne Pletcher as its new president.

Not all of the pieces critical to building an innovation-based economy have to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, as might be suggested in the Florida and Pennsylvania stories above. Gov. Matt Blunt's Feb. 2 call for the state to provide $2 million for a new Missouri Life Science Incubator - designed to help researchers move their science from the laboratory to commercial businesses - provides a case in point.

The St. Louis region lags behind a number of metropolitan areas including Austin, Portland, Atlanta, and Indianapolis in attracting 20- to 34-year olds to live and work in the region, according to a report released this month by the regional, nonprofit organization, FOCUS St. Louis.

Kelvin Simmons is the new director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, replacing Joe Driskell who held the position for 10 years. Simmons had been serving as chairman of the state's Public Service Commission.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded on Monday $25 million in grants to eight U.S. universities that pledged to make entrepreneurship education available across campus. The selected universities, shown with their award amounts, are:

The University of Minnesota Duluth Center for Economic Development has named Elaine Hansen as its new permanent director.

One of the few new spending bills to make it through the 2001 session of the Minnesota Legislature provides $10 million in seed money for technology commercialization through a new Biomedical Innovation and Commercialization Initiative (BICI – pronounced beach-ee). The BICI appropriation is contingent upon state economic development officials securing a three-to-one private sector match.

At the end of June, Governor Bob Holden signed an executive order committing $21.5 million of the state’s tobacco settlement funds for biotech research during fiscal year 2002. Governor Holden made his announcement prior to signing Senate Bill 500, which expands the state’s job training program to prepare Missouri’s work force for new careers in life sciences.

In Perfectly Competitive Innovation, a March 2002 research department staff report for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine address whether current copyright, licensing and patent laws which grant monopolist rights to inventors beneficial or harmful to the innovation process. The authors suggest the latter in certain markets. 

In an effort to help combat the present economic downturn, the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is looking to partner with groups across the U.S. to provide training to displaced workers interested in starting new businesses. 

A group of community leaders bent on revitalizing the Duluth, Minn., economy and ensuring economic opportunities for the city recently moved one step closer toward accomplishing its goals. 



The Bridge Syndicate, a non-profit with more than 300 members, recently made public its plan for economic growth, issuing A Positive Vision for Duluth's Economy. 

Marianne Hudson is leaving her position as Vice President - Marketing & Communications with the Mid-America Manufacturing Technology Center to become a program manager at the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.