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Oklahoma is a great place for business. We see it in the strength of our business environment. It’s documentedwith Oklahoma having the third fastest-growing economy in the nation during the last reported quarter and withus staking our claim as the 10th fastest-growing net-in migration state in 2022. In 2022 alone, 327 companieslooked at Oklahoma for potential projects. That’s up 90% over 2018, and if you think that number is tooold, it’s more than double what we saw in 2021. We have bundled up this thing called freedom and opportunityand have sold it to the world, and they are buying it.
One of the first things we did when Gov. Kevin Stitt came into office was change the mission of the OklahomaDepartment of Commerce. Our mission statement always has been some version of “creating high-qualityjobs,” however I don’t believe Commerce creates jobs. Commerce’s role, and our mission, is “to create anENVIRONMENT where Oklahoma BUSINESSES are empowered to create jobs.” The cards on the table aren’tjust incentives and site selection, but also business permitting, taxation, cost of doing business and supportservices.
As you likely know, one of the entities interested in joining today’s Oklahoma was Volkswagen. We workedwith them to place their newest battery cell manufacturing plant at MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor.Dozens of professionals on the state and local levels worked for months to satisfy their needs and provide anexcellent location for them to be profitable. At the end of the day, they decided to locate closer to their supplychain and continue to access Inflation Reduction Act incentives, and that means we lost out to our neighbors tothe north, Canada.
Getting the silver medal in economic development doesn’t pay very well, especially in the public arena. WithVolkswagen, Oklahoma beat out more than 100 other sites across the United States ― places like California,Ohio, Florida, Texas and Mississippi. After looking at numerous sites and considering varying businessenvironments, they decided that ours was the best in the United States. While we didn’t walk away with the deal, I’m left with a tremendous amount of encouragement that before too long, one of these massive projects is going toland here.
It disappoints me that some folks think because one company made a business decision to locate closer to asupply chain rather than locate in our state it somehow indicates Oklahoma is failing. That’s certainly not thestory the numbers tell. We are stronger than any single project. The legacy companies of our state are thebackbone of our economy. During 2022, Commerce assisted over 800 existing businesses in a variety of waysincluding, but not limited to, the awarding of specific business grants, funds and other financial assistance. Wewill continue to serve as the conduit of success for companies in Oklahoma. Great companies ― Oklahomagrown or recruited ― like Boeing, Sport Chassis, Google, Optomi, BrucePak, Parrish Enterprises, Sofidel,Navistar, Horizon Ag, Seaboard, Flogistix, Spiers New Technology and Bar S Foods ― the list goes on andon.
Oklahoma is a shining star in America right now, and we should be proud of where we have come from andwhere we are heading. We are fervently working to showcase the very best Oklahoma has to offer, and the world is taking notice. The proof is in our project pipeline, our conversations with potential companies, and just as importantly, the innovation and expansion of our existing companies. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Brent Kisling is executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.
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