Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina

4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 Chung, they “get to do some pretty fun stuff” on behalf of the state. Business View asked Chung to describe the priorities of the EDPNC and to share his insights on economic development in the growing State of North Carolina. He reports, “We’re probably best known for heading up efforts to try to recruit new employers to locate operations or expand in the state, but we also help existing companies to grow. We help some of our manufacturing firms based here to expand their international sales through exports and we even do the state’s promotion for tourism – trying to get more leisure visitation and more film and TV production activity. All of those things have a positive economic development effect. So that’s why they’re part of our mission at the EDPNC.” BVM: How would you describe North Carolina’s economic recovery coming out of the pandemic? Chung: “If you look at the empirical data on the state’s economy, the recovery from the pandemic has actually been stronger here in North Carolina than the national average. Of course, different sectors and different industries in North Carolina have done better; information technology and professional services (legal, accounting, finance) have all recovered much stronger than other sectors like hospitality and leisure and personal services. But overall, the economic recovery has been quite good, and that’s been bolstered by some big job announcements from companies that are either locating operations here or growing and expanding here. ECONOMI C DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHI P OF NORTH CAROL INA (EDPNC)