DCI: Louisiana’s Business Climate Ranks Among Top 10 In U.S.

BATON ROUGE, La. — Today, national location marketing firm DCI ranked Louisiana’s business climate tied for No. 10 in the U.S. – a gain of 20 spots since 2011 – while also ranking Louisiana Economic Development tied for No. 2 in the U.S. for best-performing state economic development agency. The rankings are based on a national survey of 356 corporate executives and site-selection consultants.

Development Counsellors International, also known as DCI, released the triennial survey in conjunction with the International Economic Development Council at IEDC’s annual conference this week in Fort Worth, Texas. Results demonstrated a remarkable rise for Louisiana, which ranked No. 30 for Most Favorable Business Climate Ranking in the previous 2011 survey. DCI’s 2014 Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing report marks the fifth major state business climate ranking to place Louisiana in the Top 10 nationally. Prior to 2008, Louisiana never ranked among the Top 10 states in any national ranking of state business climates.  

For the 2014 survey of state economic development groups, LED ranked No. 2 in a tie with the Texas Governor’s Office of Economic Development (LED’s counterpart agency in Texas) among all 50 states evaluated. The Georgia Department of Economic Development topped the ranking this year. LED improved to No. 2 from a four-way tie for No. 5 in 2011. DCI is one of three national groups that recently have ranked LED among the nation’s Top 5.

Gov. Bobby Jindal said, “Results matter, and so does quality of performance. DCI’s latest ranking of Louisiana, validated by several other national rankings, demonstrates that our economic development performance is among the strongest in the entire U.S. When we took office in 2008, we made a major commitment to improve our tax structure, business climate, and economic competitiveness so that expanding and relocating companies would know that no state offers a better place to grow than Louisiana.

“With more than $54 billion in new capital investment and more than 83,000 new jobs resulting from our successful attraction of business projects since then, we have established Louisiana as a state of choice for business investors. That means our ultimate goal of providing unprecedented career opportunity and prosperity for the people of Louisiana is being accomplished, and Louisiana is indeed becoming the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family.”

“The leading economic development organizations identified in this year’s survey set the standard across the country for being ‘best in class’ on so many levels and clearly stand out to site selectors across the country,” said DCI President Andrew Levine. “As states look at how to build and strengthen relationships with site selectors and influence corporate executives’ decisions on where to locate, invest and create jobs, Winning Strategies provides a glimpse into the minds of this important audience.” 

The DCI ranking continues a trend of rising business climate and economic development performance for Louisiana. Louisiana now ranks higher in every national business climate ranking than it ever did prior to 2008, including those published by Area Development, Beacon Hill Institute, Business FacilitiesChief Executive, CNBC, DCI, Forbes, Pollina Corporate Real Estate and Site Selection. In five national rankings – Area DevelopmentBusiness Facilities, Chief ExecutiveSite Selection and DCI – Louisiana now ranks among the Top 10 states for best business climate in the U.S.

LED’s No. 2 ranking in the DCI survey joins Top 5 selections in two other economic development performance rankings by Site Selection magazine and Pollina Corporate Real Estate. Site Selection has ranked LED as one of the Top 5 best-performing state economic development agencies in the U.S. four times since 2010 (and Top 10 every year), including a No. 1 ranking announced in 2011. In 2013, Pollina Corporate Real Estate noted that LED was tied with its counterparts in five other states as the best-performing state economic development agency in the U.S.

“We are delighted to receive this recognition for our efforts,” said LED Secretary Stephen Moret. “I am particularly grateful that Gov. Jindal and the Legislature have so strongly and consistently supported our work at LED, and that we have such an outstanding staff at LED who work hard every day to support the growth of existing Louisiana companies while also professionally and energetically promoting our state to high-quality business prospects.” 

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