We Need to Attract Investment to Maine
Let's strengthen Maine's economy
The Problem
Maine does not have a strategic plan for attracting private investors who will consider Maine as a good choice to build or expand their businesses. Currently, investors do not consider Maine a prosperous state when looking for a place to grow their financial investments. Maine has high costs, regulatory burdens, and a lack of skilled workers.
The Challenge
How do we begin to create a business climate that looks appealing and attracts investors?
It starts with homework – our leaders must confront issues without fear of becoming a target, and they must be committed to doing the right thing for Mainers, putting aside any self-interest they may have. These leaders must share a common vision of where Maine needs to go in the future.
That homework should begin with looking at what makes other states successful – that will help identify any necessary steps, and lay out the direction we ought to take.
This process begins with data and research; it really starts with a commitment to do the right thing and to try to build an economy from the ground up for everybody in Maine.
Once we have that commitment from our leaders, we should conduct the research and begin identifying the steps needed to reach the common goal of making Maine more attractive to investors. As we conduct that research and analyze the data / feedback, we’ll start to figure understand the issues and come up with answers.
The Solution
Say, for example, we know that Maine needs to attract capital investment in order to grow its economy – the homework and research we do should be about understanding why people make a decision to invest, or what criteria makes people decide against making an investment in Maine.
Our leaders should go to the people that are making those investments and ask: What are your parameters? What are your criteria? How do you come to a decision? Why did you invest here? Why did you not invest?
This is a logical approach to making Maine an attractive location for investors. It can be done easily, yet nobody has stepped up to do this.