Saturday, December 3, 2022

Guv: Grow MS's defense economy

The Mississippi Governor’s Office of Military Affairs (GOMA), and Mississippi Defense Initiative (MDI) at the University of Southern Mississippi, have announced plans to strengthen and grow the state's defense economy in the recently released The Future Fight: Mississippi’s Defense Economy Strategic Plan. The defense economy is 6.5% of the state's overall GDP, according to the governor's office media release. Mississippi must continue its "investment in emerging technologies within our university research institutions" supporting defense-related sectors and work with military installations in Mississippi to "improve the quality of life for service members and their families,” Haimes A. Kilgore, MDI program director. The plan was developed to capitalize on national defense trends and security and local the development approach to growing that industry and state defense communities. Future Fight has three areas of recommendations to improve its approach to the defense industry. (1) Continue to build up communities with military installations, (2) market the state to defense-related industries and (3) focus on systems that encourage veteran employment. "We want our research centers to develop military technologies, our manufacturing sector to produce them, and our military installations to deploy them. Mississippi and our economic engine stand ready to support our military in any way we can,” Gov. Tate Reeves is quoted. (Governor's Office 12/02/22) Governor's Office of Military Affairs Releases Plan to Grow Mississippi's Defense Economy | SCT Online             

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