Video: MSU Hosts 5th Annual Manufacturing Summit

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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The Magnolia State has become a leader in the manufacturing industry in recent years, doing business with companies like Yokohama Tire and Toyota.
On Wednesday the 5th Annual Manufacturing Summit was hosted at Mississippi State and this year the keynote speaker was Governor Phil Bryant.

Hundreds of business leaders gathered at MSU to “Focus on the Future”, the theme for this year’s Manufacturing Summit. Governor Phil Bryant announced that Mississippi is now one of the top manufacturing states in the nation.  Bryant says there’s one important component needed to create more economic growth in the state.

“It’s the work force. Just now before the legislature, we’re asking for $50 million, not out of the general fund but the reserve of the unemployment account we have.
Demand on unemployment is down 24%. If we can take that $50 million, put in our community colleges and our institutions of higher learning for a work force,” says Bryant.

For the first time during the Summit, participants engaged in solving an interactive logistics problem. There was also a panel discussion about the future of logistics and transportation in manufacturing.
Governor Bryant says Mississippi has to invest in the next generation to ensure the work force is properly trained for business.

“We’re offering scholarships and programs for Master Tech programs where students in high school can come out high school, go to a two year training to be a welder, electrician or manufacturer. Those are the things we must do,” says Bryant.

Other Summit speakers included Hal Sirkin of the Boston Consulting Group and Dr. Malcolm Portera, a former President of Mississippi State University.

Sponsors for this year’s Summit included the MSU Franklin Furniture Institute, Mississippi Manufacturers Association and the Rural Jobs Accelerator Grant.