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Economic leaders challenge state

Submitted by: John Warner on Nov 05, 2005 at 2:33 am Tagged with: Miscellany Source:

Economic leaders challenge state
Success in other states leaves us further from prosperity, officials say

Posted Friday, November 4, 2005 - 6:00 am

By David Dykes and Ben Szobody
STAFF WRITERS
ddykes@greenvillenews.com

South Carolina must revamp its economic strategy and raise its standard of living or it will be left behind by other states adapting to the rapidly emerging global economy, business, education and government leaders said Thursday.

Again and again at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce's annual summit in Greenville, they delivered the same message, often bluntly, but always clearly: The state has abundant resources and the potential to create more wealth and prosperity, but the economic development approach of selling itself as a low-cost place to do business with cheap labor has run its course.

That "is not the formula for long-term success," said Lake City native Darla Moore. "But we've done it that way forever."

A key challenge, she said, is whether the state has the will to change that attitude.

"I don't quite know how we go about changing it, other than just one day at a time," she said.

A partner in the New York-based investment firm Rainwater Inc., Moore is an alumna of the University of South Carolina, where she later returned to endow the college now named for her, the Moore School of Business.

Rest at Greenville News