Arkansas jobs chief returns from Taiwan, optimistic about ‘large projects’

Grant Tennille, director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, says it’s time for Arkansas to refocus economic relations with Taiwan, the democratic island nation whose connection and relationship with China has improved.

Tennille recently returned from a week-long Asian trade trip that involved meeting with Taiwanese and Chinese officials. Tennille said he re-upped a trade agreement on behalf of the state and has hopes it will pay dividends.

“In Taiwan, I was recently honored and fortunate to re-sign to reactivate a trade agreement between the state of Arkansas and TAITRA, which is the Taiwanese trade ministry. That agreement was first signed by then-Gov. Clinton in 1979,” Tennille said.

There have always been tense relations between Taiwan and mainland China, and Clinton never visited there as President. He did, however, make four visits to Taiwan as Arkansas governor.

“It was very, very clear to me that he [Clinton] had developed some very strong and warm relationships over there and I had somewhat regretted that they hadn’t been kept up as well as they should have been,” said Tennille.

“We’re planning on rebuilding those relationships because there’s an enormous amount of opportunity, not only obviously in mainland China, but in Taiwan. The business relationships between those two countries have improved light years in the last five years. So I think that some success in China is going to require some effort in Taiwan,” he said.

ON A ROLL
Arkansas economic officials have participated in several major groundbreakings in the last month.

“I think some of its confidence. And I’ve been saying for the better part of a year that people are just sort of running out of patience. There’s never, it feels like, ever going to be the perfect time to launch one of these big things. Sometimes you just have to go,” Tennille said.

In Central Arkansas, Dassault Falcon officials recently turned dirt for a $60 million expansion at its Little Rock facility. Two weeks later, officials announced a subsequent location of a French aircraft interior manufacturer that supplies Dassault.

In El Dorado, officials broke ground on a $100 million incinerator project. And, last week, the state officially helped launch construction at the $1.3 billion Big River Steel superproject.

Tennille said he is not worried about a lawsuit filed by competitor Nucor Steel, which has two steel mills in Mississippi County, the site of Big River Steel. Tennille said he’s confident that environmental regulators were thorough in their review of Big River’s air quality permit. He said it’s nearing time to move on.

“I think that we’re hopefully at some point in the not-too-distant future in for some really energetic softball games in Mississippi County,” Tennille said.

Overall, conditions are favorable for more economic prospects, Tennille said, calling activity in his agency’s circle “wall-to-wall.” He cited Dassault’s optimistic forecast for a civilian aircraft market rebound that could lead to more suppliers in Central Arkansas and said more is in the pipeline.

“There are some very, very large projects circling out there that we’re working on,” Tennille said, adding that he is worried about the low balance in the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund, which has less than $7 million in available funds to incentivize projects.