Kiplinger praises tri-county’s economy

Knight Kiplinger, economic forecaster and editor in chief of Washington, D.C.-based The Kiplinger Letter and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, recently addressed 250 business leaders at the Charleston Regional Development Alliance’s annual update luncheon at Hibernian Hall. Kiplinger sees high economic promise for the Lowcountry.

“The Charleston area’s quality of life is one of your most important assets,” he says. “High-tech companies like Blackbaud and Automated Trading Desk can locate themselves anywhere. So why did they choose Charleston? Because of the quality of life.”

Our other important assets, according to Kiplinger, are a quality workforce, thanks largely to educational institutions like Trident Technical College, and the port, which Kiplinger calls “a gem. Global trade is America’s future, and Charleston will benefit from that.”

The high-tech, high-quality jobs that have arrived in the Lowcountry over the past several years are a boon Kiplinger credits to the closing of the Naval shipyard in 1996.

“The closing of your shipyard was a blessing in disguise,” he notes. “It forced the region to diversify economically and to leverage its other assets.”
So, can DaimlerChrysler’s decision not to build their plant in Summerville be considered a blessing in disguise?

“I won’t say that,” Kiplinger says. “It’s never fun when the big fish get away. But when it happens, you’re forced to concentrate on the little fish.” And a bunch of little fish, Kiplinger reminds us, can be as great an economic catch as that longed-for whopper-especially if they bring knowledge-based jobs.
More such jobs lie in store for us as biotechnology prepares to spawn a booming industry, with the Medical University of South Carolina in the forefront, Kiplinger says. He believes biotechnology will have as lucrative an economic impact as computers had in the 1980s and “put the Charleston area in good stead for years to come.”

That’s the sunny side of the area’s economic forecast. But what about that dark cloud Alliance President and CEO David Ginn pointed out during the luncheon-that although the Lowcountry’s cost of living has soared past Atlanta’s, not to mention the national average, our per capita income lags behind Birmingham, Ala.’s and the national average. About 40% of Charleston households have annual incomes below $35,000. This disparity between cost of living and income is creating a storm in which some say Charleston’s middle class will get washed away-leaving only the very rich and the very poor.

“That’s an overly dire forecast,” Kiplinger says. But he added that regions are healthiest when they have a wide range of incomes.
All in all, Kiplinger predicts an economic future of mostly bright skies for the Lowcountry, mainly because we have a knack for making the right adjustments.

“The future belongs to those who are flexible and adaptive,” he says. “Charleston is both.”