After a year of adjustment and refinement, an aggressive,short-term strategy aiming to bring new jobs to the region is readyfor deployment.

The Southwest Mississippi Partnership is starting the clock andbeginning to hunt down its target industries, seeking to bring abusiness in one of four specific categories to the southwest regionin 18 months. The plan is designed to battle the economic recessionwith immediate economic success by cashing in on companies that areready to expand after holding back on growth plans during thedownturn.

“What we’re seeing right now with customers and future customersis that they have a lot of capital on the books. They’re ready tomake some decisions,” said John Mullins, an economic developer withEntergy. “Eighteen months ago they were holding on. Now, they’reready to invest, and they’re going to move fast. We have to beready.”

Speaking at a Partnership meeting Tuesday morning, Mullins andother regional and statewide economic developers detailed an updateon plans for the Partnership, an 11-county confederation thatrecruits industry as a group. With the resources of those countiespooled together in a single focus, the Partnership has developed anarrow shopping list of industries and has spent the last yearbuilding a documented sales pitch that capitalizes on the region’sstrengths.

The Partnership is hoping to recruit plastic compounding, foodprocessing, metal fabrication and call center industries to theregion.

According to research done by various firms the group hascontracted with, each of those four industry types fits well intothe region – light industries with long-term staying power and highpay. They should also have a decided advantage in costs by locatingin Southwest Mississippi.

Call centers can operate here at 74.8 percent of the nationalexpense average, plastics and metals industries at 78 percent andfood processing industries at 79 percent. Call centers couldestablish a presence in the region cheapest, requiring only anestimated $3.4 million to set up shop and pay a first year’swages.

But Southwest Mississippi has more in its favor than a low costof doing business. The region is highly prepared, with anassortment of 35 identified and ready industrial sites andbuildings; has a large workforce; and plentiful transportation likeinterstates, railroads, airports and ports.

Most importantly, Southwest Mississippi proportionately leadsthe state and nation in the number of adults with high school andat least two years of junior college education – the biggestsegment of the workforce.

“You have so many resources in Southwest Mississippi, and it’stime we think differently about how we market this region,” saidGray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi DevelopmentAuthority. “You can pull all these resources together and tell adifferent story.”

With the target industries identified and the sites andresources in place, Partnership officials are now ready to begintracking down prospective industries.

There are plenty to choose from. The Partnership has identified2,465 companies with growth potential, including 937 metalfabrication businesses, 657 call centers, 564 food processors and307 plastics industries.

And they know where those industries are – 247 industries withgrowth potential are in the North Central U.S., with another 125 inthe Southwest. Partnership marketing teams are preparing to travelto Chicago, Toledo and other concentrated areas to meet theprospects and market the region.

“We have approved the script for our marketing campaign, and wewill send our teams to canvas these areas and make calls,” saidPartnership President Britt Herrin.

Following the program’s 18-month deadline, the Partnership hopesto have a new industry setting up shop somewhere in the 11-countyregion – which runs from Natchez to Monticello and from Liberty toPort Gibson – by the summer of 2012.

Hopes are an industry will be welcomed into the region beforethen, but the Partnership’s script is set up to go beyond the18-month deadline, too, said Cliff Brumfield, executive vicepresident of the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce.

“This doesn’t stop at the end of any timeframe,” he said. “Thisdocument is a liquid document.”