One of the things I like about industry reports such as this is they remind me that small jurisdictions can be very successful competing against large jurisdictions in attracting investment into important, fast growing industries. If I had a nickel for everytime someone said “we can’t compete with Ontario – or Quebec – or Fill-in-the-blank”, I’d have at least a few bucks.
Small jurisdictions can compete. They just can’t be all things to all people.
Take this industry – medical technologies. From the report:
A number of smaller states had high concentrations of MTI [medical technology industry] jobs. Minnesota and Utah had the highest concentration of MTI jobs relative to total employment—over 3 times the national average. Delaware, Massachusetts and Indiana followed, with over 2 times the national average.
Only California has more medical technology jobs than little Minnesota (1.6% of the US population – New Brunswick is 2.2% of the Canadian population).
You can’t get more New Brunswick than Minnesota – mosquitos, cold winters, huntin’ and fishin’ and yet it’s doing some really interesting things.
We have got to get over this notion that we can’t compete and put real horsepower into figure out how we can compete.
Keep in mind ‘concentration’ means they have very little else. Minnesota is not exactly known for….well, anything. A little research is in order here, but I’d hazard a guess that virtually ALL that concentration is due to the Mayo Clinic. A book could be written just on that, but its a simple fact that that is probably THE most famous hospital/clinic in the world. The town of Rochester is pretty much an industry town, though I’d suggest they are better off than a mill town. WHile there are other branches of the Mayo Clinic, it would be pretty hard to simply pull up shop and relocate.
That brings us back to the ‘medical tourism’ topic, and I suspect the administration of health, with two regional administrators,doesn’t help NB much. I’ve been pretty involved in the health field and here in ontario individual hospitals are pretty much standalone with direct competition with other hospitals. While there is still massive bureaucracy, theres a bit of a difference when both Cambridge and Guelph are asking for donations and your ‘service’. It’s not at the point where they are advertising abroad, certainly, but they certainly are now very business oriented-for good and bad.
You need educated people. These are the rules. And it all has to be done, in duplicate. Two languages. Thats not going to happen. Keep looking. Sort of comparable to the pet industry in New Brunswick being destroyed by backward yokels with a uniform and power. Such as the Chapman’s,(a Ecuadorian immigrant), a million dollar a year business in a small town, destroyed by the spca actions, and now to be compensated for false accusations in a court of law. No thanks. NB corruption is too rampant, always have been. In fact all of eastern Canada, Finished.
The manufacturer of a Class II, III or IV medical device must obtain a device license before the product may be sold on the Canadian market. The requirements for obtaining such a license vary according to the risk classification of the device. Class II device license applications are fairly straight forward and require only basic information. Class III and IV applications are more involved and require the submission of substantial information to support the claims that safety and effectiveness requirements are met.
Besides, every state was doing well, even Alaska. Probably more to do with some kind of freedoms or business appreciation. The “you can do it” is a fundamentalist feely good. I know many who can do it, and they are doing it, IN Alberta.
Please read this fast, as it is set to be destroyed in 38 seconds! The standard length of honesty in the East.
Look, Inspector. I am not going to use this blog to promote your hatred of bilingualism. There are other venues for that. This is an economic development blog.
Interesting report; they seem to define MTI as technology development and production, rather than as health providers.
Wonder if there is a correlation between private and/or public sector R&D investments (in medical sciences, especially) in a given state and the size of those industries in that state? Wisconsin, for example, (one of the top ten states) has a lot of uni spin-off biotech outfits that are mainly focused on supplying the health industry with products. Most of the top ten states have large R&D universities with excellent track records (although I suppose California’s unis will see a decline as the financial crisis there takes a bite out of spending).
The report also notes that, in the most productive states, there are 3 non-MTI jobs created for every MTI job.
Minnesota has a population of 5.7 million people, including a major metropolis. While it has a reputation of lakes and trees, the southern part of the state (where the city is located) is a large area of very productive farmland. It’s not really very much like NB at all.