Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008 4:05 pm

Rutherford County is now part of the Tennessee Valley Corridor, a regional economic and technology development organization focused on bringing high-tech jobs to the area, U.S. Reps. Bart Gordon and Zach Wamp announced jointly from the Middle Tennessee State University campus. “Too many of our children are forced to leave their home towns to pursue job opportunities elsewhere. By working together, we can create higher paying jobs close to home,” Gordon said. “Eighty-five percent of measured growth in U.S. income per capita is due to technological change. Without high-quality, knowledge intensive jobs and the innovative enterprises that lead to discovery and new technology, our economy will suffer, and we will face a lower standard of living,” said Gordon, who chairs the House Science and Technology Committee. The addition of the Sixth Congressional District to the Tennessee Valley Corridor makes a total of nine congressional districts, from northern Alabama to southwest Virginia, actively working together to create high-tech jobs. As evidence that a regional collaboration works, Wamp sited the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga and the BMW plant in Alabama. “Where regions work together economically, you achieve success,” he said. “We’re all in this together.” The announcement followed a meeting of Mind to Marketplace, a consortium of academic professionals, businesspeople, PK-12 educators, Chambers of Commerce and government leaders. M2M was formed two years ago to connect the brightest and best ideas in middle Tennessee technology to the marketplace, aiding the mission of the Tennessee Valley Corridor. “Half the workers on earth earn less than $2 per day,” Gordon said. “We cannot and should not try to compete with the world on low wages. We have to compete at a higher level with a better equipped, highly-skilled and more productive workforce.” Gordon’s COMPETES Act, signed into law last year, includes efforts to boost math and science education and increase federal investment in long-term research. The Tennessee Valley Corridor uses regional assets, like Middle Tennessee State University, Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal, Arnold Engineering Development Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TVA, corporate leaders in science and technology, and others, to collaborate and draw high-tech research, development, businesses and investment into the region.