GNO Inc. works to increase economic development this year and over the new decade
With the new year, comes new plans for attracting more economic development to the New Orleans area and Greater New Orleans Inc., sees lots of opportunities.
Hyma Moore is Vice President of External Affairs for GNO, Inc.
“We’re really excited about this year, you know last year was a tremendous year for the region and I think we’re going to be able to double-down on one, the tech industry, making it more diversified, wind manufacturing is something that we’re really excited about,” said Moore. “New Orleans and the region is more poised than any other region in the country to take advantage of wind manufacturing.”
Moore says windmill activity is already part of the local business landscape.
“The first windmill kind of factored into Vermont was manufactured here in New Orleans by a New Orleans company and people don’t know that and we also have a huge company called LM Wind Power that is anchored at Michoud, and so they are spending a lot of time testing these huge blades and huge windmills right here in New Orleans and so we think they’re going to be able to offer even more jobs, more services beyond our region,” Moore stated.
And area ports continue to work in the region’s favor.
“Our ports are growing at a rate that is surpassing those overseas and those here in America, so we’re going to double-down on that, as well,” said Moore.
But the focus is beyond this year. Soon GNO Inc., will release its new plan for the new decade called “GNOfuture.”
Moore said they have been working on it for awhile.
“And so, we spent the last 12 months meeting with stakeholders all across the region and bringing folk in from around the country to talk about the best practices for regional economic development,” said Moore.
Attracting new jobs and industries requires supplying a qualified workforce, so education is part of the discourse.
“Early childhood education, university and community colleges and making sure that we’re strengthening those and looking for ways to build the workforce and making sure that when we bring these companies here to the region our workforce is prepared and able to fill those jobs,” said Moore.
On early childhood education, Governor John Bel Edwards, who begins a new term in office on Monday says increasing funding for early childhood education is a top priority of his.
Moore welcomes that idea.
We’re very excited to be working with the governor and the legislature on a couple of things, particularly early childhood education and like I said earlier, Higher Ed, those are two big initiatives that we believe the governor and the legislature can work really well on,” he said.
Governor Edwards announced Thursday that Base Craft, a motion picture equipment leasing company will expand its operations in Jefferson Parish.
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