MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Construction work is moving forward on a Chinese copper tubing manufacturer's new plant in southwest Alabama, a project that is expected to bring at least 300 jobs to a rural area where they have been sorely needed for years.
Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, cited the Golden Dragon project in a speech today at the Economic Development Association of Alabama's Winter Conference, which was held this week in Montgomery.
Canfield listed Golden Dragon among the state's recent economic development wins, but he also called it a boost for rural economic development efforts. The plant's employment could eventually grow to as many as 500 workers.
"All eyes are now on Wilcox County," Canfield said, adding that steel is going up for the facility and the state's workforce training agency, AIDT, is in place to begin advance work for job recruiting.
Birmingham's Hoar Construction is the project's general contractor.
Located in the middle of Alabama's poverty-plagued Black Belt region, Wilcox County has been a perennial leader in state unemployment.
In December, the county's unemployment rate stood at 15.1 percent, the highest in the state. It also had the highest average unemployment for all of 2011, at 19.3 percent, according to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations.
Fifty-two of Alabama's 67 counties are considered rural, said Wayne Vardaman, executive director of the Selma and Dallas County Economic Development Authority.
Vardaman is heading up an expanded effort by EDAA to focus on rural economic development issues. Such areas often face an uphill battle when it comes to luring new jobs, because they don't get the attention from prospects, site selection consultants and others, like big population centers do.
In the new EDAA effort, rural areas have been split into six regions, with a committee of economic developers in each region that will work to address specific issues, such as infrastructure and incentives.
There's no one-size-fits-all solution to unlocking prosperity in these areas. For instance, rural communities in parts of Alabama's Black Belt have limited interstate access but good rail access, while similar communities in northwest Alabama lack nearby rail but are close to Interstate 22.
The success of the initiative will depend on the success of the committees, said Vardaman, who called it a bottom-up effort.
Canfield said rural communities must plot a strategy that is realistic and creative. They may not get a major auto manufacturer or even a Golden Dragon-type project, but there are suppliers, warehousing operations and other smaller projects that will lift their worker rolls.
"They need to think strategically about themselves in a different way," he said.