MAYHEW, Miss. (WTVA) — It was a packed house Wednesday on East Mississippi Community College's Mayhew campus as officials from throughout the area heard from Mac Portera, the former president of Mississippi State University.
Portera brought to the podium at this year's Golden Triangle Development LINK luncheon his unique perspective on job creation and economic development.
For starters, he's spent time overseas in places like Japan, Korea and India — countries that he said could have a keen interest in our area.
That's because the Golden Triangle has just about everything locating businesses look for, including two major universities, an accessible airport, a well-traveled waterway and major manufacturers. He said information technology will play a big factor in future development as well.
"There's a wonderful opportunity here coming together, accessing the resources that are at State and at MUW and the community college here as well as within the industrial development framework of the organization," said Portera.
Economic developers in the Golden Triangle said they are very much looking forward to the future, believing that this historic partnership will yield more jobs and more money for their respective areas.
Leaders like Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman were impressed with what they heard.
"This continues to be a very exciting time for the Golden Triangle region, and I think the possibilities for all of us are more limitless than they've ever been," said Wiseman.
But there was more than just ideas discussed during the meeting.
"We found a tenant for the spec building in Lowndes County," said the LINK's Joe Max Higgins. "We'll make an announcement. I guess it will be January. We expect that building to be gone. We've got two real active projects looking at the Prairie Belt site up in West Point. We've got another project looking at Starkville."
Higgins said the LINK is working with a team in Starkville to find other sites for possible projects in the future.
