West Virginia approves
dynamic new incentives

West Virginia’s dynamic new incentives package promises to pave the way for economic development.

The Economic Opportunity Credit allows a substantial offset of state business tax liability. The Manufacturing Investment Credit halves a company’s corporate net income and franchise taxes. The Strategic R&D Credit offsets taxes on all of a company’s R&D projects. Materials and equipment purchased for direct use in R&D are exempt from the 6 percent state sales and use tax.

Venture capital companies will be exempt from the franchise tax after January 2003. A new Development Financing Pool will construct, equip, improve or maintain various new economic development, capital improvement and infrastructure projects. The Linked Deposit Program will provide loans to qualified small business up to $150,000 for terms up to four years.

Tax Increment Financing is expected to pass in the next election. Legislation generated up to $100 million in venture capital for West Virginia.

West Virginia cities
tops in the nation

Forbes magazine and the Milken Institute ranked two West Virginia metropolitan areas among the nation’s top 200 best places to do business and advance a career. Four smaller metro areas are rated on a companion list.

The Charleston metro ranked 128th, up from 144th in 2001. The Huntington-Ashland, W.Va.-Ky.-Ohio area was 178th, up from 197th last year. In a list ranking smaller metro areas, Wheeling, W.Va.-Ohio earned the 57th slot this year up from 90th last year. Steubenville-Weirton, Ohio-W.Va. was 71st, up from 91st last year. Parkersburg-Marietta, W.Va.-Ohio rose to 62nd from 80th last year. Cumberland, Md.-W.Va. rose to 74th from 79th last year.

Earlier this year, Charleston ranked No. 83 in the Ladies’ Home Journal list of the best 143 cities with fewer than 300,000 people in terms of categories that matter to women. Included in the judging criteria were such things as crime rates, education achievements, child-care quality and the presence of women in local government.

BB&T brings 200 jobs
to Charleston center

Gov. Bob Wise and officials from BB&T announced the addition of 200 jobs at the company’s Charleston Operations Center.

The company’s plans call for 100 jobs to be added in processing, which is necessary as a result of BB&T’s recent acquisitions. The remaining 100 jobs will be added within the next two years in customer service areas.

“BB&T has spent approximately $13 million in refurbishing our Charleston facilities. The bulk of this investment has been in the operations center, which has created capacity for these new jobs,” said Holmes Morrison, newly retired CEO of BB&T’s West Virginia operations. He is now a member of the board of directors.

“BB&T ranks No. 1 in market share in West Virginia, making Charleston the perfect site for our latest expansion,” said Leon Wilson, senior executive vice president at the company’s headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C., and operations division manager at the company’s Operations Center in Wilson, N.C.

BB&T Corp. is a fast-growing, highly profitable financial holding company with $74.9 billion in assets. Its bank subsidiaries operate more than 1,100 branch offices in the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana and Washington, D.C.

Gov. Wise rewards
companies for exporting

Gov. Bob Wise presented a new award, the Governor’s Commendation for International Market Entry, to representatives of 19 West Virginia companies that have successfully exported to a new country in recent months.

International companies from 17 countries operate facilities in West Virginia, representing more than $7 billion in investment. The companies provide jobs for more than 30,000 West Virginians.

The new award represents the first peso, mark or other currency a West Virginia exporter has earned. The following West Virginia companies received the award for market entry in 2002-02:

Allegheny Products, Shady Spring, for exports to Italy.
Appalachian Electronic Instruments, Ronceverte, for exports to Brazil, China, Thailand, Turkey, Denmark and England.
Bright of America, Summersville, for exports to South Africa, Nigeria and Australia.
EIMCO Coal Machinery Inc., Bluefield, for exports to Croatia and Australia.
FCX Systems, Inc., Morgantown, for exports to Greece and El Salvador.
GTR Labs, Gassaway, for exports to China, Canada, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela.
Guyan International, Barboursville, for exports to China.
Hi-Tech Dry Kiln Co., Belington, for exports to Mexico.
H K Castings Inc., Weston, for exports to Greece.
Hubco Bronze Inc., Wheeling, for exports to Canada.
Jamegy, New Cumberland, for exports to England.
Marco North America, Ona, for exports to Germany.
Metal Wood Bats, Eleanor, for exports to Korea.
Metsch Refractories Inc., Chester, for exports to Sweden.
Phillips Machine Service, Inc., Beckley, for exports to China and Indonesia.
Primedia Products, Inc., Wheeling, for exports to France, India, Brazil, Spain, Malaysia and Mexico.
Schonstedt Instruments, Kearneysville, for exports to the United Nations.
Vimasco Corp., Nitro, for exports to Brazil and Ukraine.
Wescor Forest Products, Clarksburg, for exports to Thailand and India.

Toyota plant at Buffalo
leads the nation

Toyota Motor Manufacturing of West Virginia leads the nation in productivity, according to automotive research firm Harbour and Associates.

The four-cylinder engine plant's productivity rating of 2.4 hours per engine is better than 15 other plants, including its much larger sister Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky., which ranked fourth with 2.95 hours per engine.

The plant also ranked third in production of V-6 engines, of 18 plants nationwide. The Toyota plant has exceeded expectations since it began producing engines in 1998, said David Copenhaver, general manager of administration for the plant. "This proves just how good our West Virginia folks are."

W.Va. school technology
is competitive

Education Week magazine reports that “in addition to e-learning, West Virginia schools are making headway in other areas involving technology. State officials report that all of West Virginia’s schools and 89 percent of its classrooms have Internet access.”

The Education Week report shows that West Virginia is among 12 states with a virtual high school; 13 that regulate non-state-sponsored e-learning initiatives; 23 that require new teachers to receive technology training or coursework before they are licensed; and 32 that have an e-learning initiative, which includes efforts to operate virtual schools, give state assessments online and provide teacher training online.

The report shows that West Virginia has 4.6 students per computer, which ranks it 20th among the 50 states, and 5.6 students per computer with Internet access, which ranks 12th in the nation.

Information technology
company expands

Information Manufacturing Corp., based in Mineral County, is expanding to Webster County and will create 50 jobs. A new building is planned at a local industrial park. IMC converts paper documents, microfilm and microfiche into digital form, and helps customers store and organize the data.

Butterfly.net announces
IBM partnership

Shepherdstown-based Butterfly.net created a media flutter recently, announcing its partnership with IBM Corp. in grid computing, which links computers into a vast, reliable network and allows millions of people to access online games at one time - seamlessly.

IBM provided the servers and other hardware. Butterfly.net developed the software. In an interview with HomeLAN, “a haven for serious gamers,” Butterfly CEO David Levine said, “We’ve worked extremely hard for two years to build something amazing, and we’re just focused on finding the greatest designers, turning them onto this incredible tool and hoping they blow our minds with something we’ve never seen before.”

Metals recycler locates
in West Virginia

Gov. Bob Wise announced the commitment of Green Metals, Inc., to expand in West Virginia.

Green Metals, Inc., headquartered in Georgetown, Ky., is a joint venture involving Toyota Tsusho Corp. (Japan), Toyota Tsusho America, Inc., Nakadaya Corp. (Japan) and ARK, Inc.

Green Metals, Inc., is a leader in environmentally protective recycling of industrial scrap metal commodities with operations in accordance with ISO 14001 standards. This ensures environmentally safe recycling for the industrial scrap metal generator as well as the general public.

Green Metals, Inc., selected West Virginia for its excellent available labor force, strategic available land space and the working relationship with state and local officials and Toyota Tsusho Corp. The facility will be based in Putnam County with operations to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Royal Vendors receives
innovation award

Royal Vendors, Inc., received the prestigious Special Recognition for Technical Innovation Award at 2002 Energy Star Awards Dinner, hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Royal Vendors received this award for ingenuity and leadership in the design of energy efficient vending machine technology,” said Jeff Herholdt, manager of the Energy Efficiency Program of the West Virginia Development Office. “New technology featured in the ‘EconoCool’ vending machine allows Royal Vendors’ customers to use approximately 50 percent less energy.”

Royal Vendors, Inc., designs and manufactures high-quality cold-drink vending machines. Founded in 1987, the 280,000-square-foot manufacturing plant is in the Bardane Industrial Park, Kearneysville, West Virginia. Royal Vendors, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coin Acceptors, St. Louis, Mo., and employs approximately 600 employees.

WV-Industries of the Future
program honored

The West Virginia Industries of the Future program won the Industrial Energy Technology Conference (IETC) Energy Award from the advisory board of the IETC. Two entities received the award; the other recipient is the Motorola Inc. SPS Energy Council. The IETC Energy Award selection process starts with nominations by individual members of the advisory board. Marsha Quinn of the U.S. Department of Energy nominated the WV-IOF program.

Translators help ease
economic development

The Marshall University Center for International Programs, the Marshall University Research Corp. and the West Virginia Development Office have signed a formal agreement to establish the Language Research Bank.

The LRB is a cadre of language translators and interpreters who provide language skills services for the West Virginia Development Office to assist with delegations that are visiting West Virginia for economic development-related purposes. The translators and interpreters are current Marshall students and faculty.

Main Street West Virginia
honors communities

Communities and individuals from across West Virginia won awards for their work in downtown revitalization at the annual Main Street Awards banquet.

Over the past year, the 12 Main Street communities spent more than $85 million on private investment with the result of 41 new businesses and 1,892 new jobs. Volunteers put in well over 16,000 hours of time.

Main Street Martinsburg and Main Street Philippi won the large and small categories for design. For economic restructuring, Main Street Martinsburg won the large town category and Main Street Ripley received the award for the small community. Receiving the awards in the promotion category were Main Street Morgantown and Main Street Ripley. Each of the six communities received $3,000.

Outstanding organizational committee work awards of $3,500 each were awarded to Main Street Martinsburg and Main Street Ripley. Monnie Landis of Main Street Ripley was named executive director of the year. Recognition went to volunteer, board member, business person and public official of the year from the communities of Fairmont, Harpers Ferry, Kingwood, Mannington, Martinsburg, Morgantown, New Martinsville, Philippi, Point Pleasant, Ripley and St. Albans.