Development News From Southwest Indiana (10/7/04)

Trip to Japan may pay off for KCDC

By Gayle R. Robbins, associate news editor, Vincennes Sun Commercial
A nine-day trip to Japan provided the opportunity for Knox County officials to make some 400 connections with potential investors, Knox County Development Corp. Gary Gentry said this morning.

Gentry and Vincennes Mayor Terry Mooney took part in the trip that was arranged by the state Department of Commerce. KCDC paid Mooney's expenses. Their report was given at the KCDC's monthly meeting in the President's Room at Vincennes University's Isaac K. Beckes Student Union.

"The trip exceeded my expectations," Gentry said, adding that the two men met with 56 companies which directly expressed interests in investing in the Midwest sometime during the next three years. He also said the two men came back with at least one immediate prospect.

"Of course, everybody else (on the trip) came back with that same prospect," he said.

Gentry and the mayor went well-prepared, including having business cards printed in Japanese that they passed out to officials. The cards proved particularly advantageous.

"Next time we go we'll take even more cards," Gentry quipped.

Mooney came away from the trip convinced that while Knox County is in direct competition with other communities in Indiana and surrounding states for that investment, because of the area's relationship with Futaba Indiana of America and Excell USA it has a leg up on those competitors.

"It was clear that our good relationships with FIA and Excell gave us an advantage over the others," Mooney said.

FIA President Takashi Suzuki's favorable comments about the area and the close working relationship the company has with KCDC and local officials were included in the three-minute presentation Mooney made to a large group of Japanese business and government leaders.

Those comments, plus the introductions FIA and Excell officials gave them to other business leaders were a big help, the mayor said. FIA and Excell make parts for Toyota and both have or are in the process of expanding the plants. Both plants are in the U.S. 41 Industrial Park, which KCDC owns.

Both Mooney and Gentry said the trip would have been worth the expense if the only things the two men had been able to do were to meet with the FIA and Excell officials.

Gentry said having the mayor along also gave Knox County an edge due to the emphasis the Japanese place on the office. He also said the organization needed to be planning to take more trips to Japan to continue to develop personal relationships with both business and government leaders.

"It's vitally clear to me we have to continue to have a presence there," he said.

Knox County wasn't originally to be included on the trip but through Gentry's lobbying efforts with the Commerce department it got an invitation to go, said State Rep. John Frenz, D-Vincennes. "Gary did an unbelievable job getting us included," he added.

There are currently over 200 Japanese-based companies operating within Indiana, more than in any other state in the Midwest, Gentry said.

For more information on the Knox County, contact:
Gary Gentry, 812-886-6993

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