GOVERNOR O’MALLEY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION RELEASE FIVE-YEAR PLAN TO POSITION STATE FOR GROWTH IN THE NEW ECONOMY

Governor announces new life sciences, retail tenants at Science +Technology Park at Johns Hopkins

ANNAPOLIS, MD (April 14, 2011)  –  Following the passage this week by the Maryland General Assembly of several key economic development initiatives, including InvestMaryland, Governor Martin O’Malley today joined the Maryland Economic Development Commission (MEDC), Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, elected officials and emerging life sciences companies for the release of the Commission’s five-year strategic economic development plan, Charting Maryland’s Economic Path: Discovery, Diversity & Opportunity. The Commission, which was re-launched by the Governor in 2009 after being inactive for several years, developed the plan over 18 months with input from more than 250 business owners and four regional roundtable discussions around the State. Focused on four core strategies, the plan outlines a framework to position Maryland for growth; build on the State’s leading economic drivers, like life sciences, cyber security and federal and military operations; embrace regional and economic diversity in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture; and make it easier to do business in the State.

“I want to thank the Commission for many months of hard work in developing this plan, which charts a clear path for accelerating our mission of creating and retaining jobs and positioning Maryland as a leader in the new economy,” said Governor O’Malley. “While these targeted strategies will help guide our economic development efforts for the next five years and beyond, we have already laid the groundwork with bold initiatives, like InvestMaryland, that give Maryland a unique competitive advantage to be able to fight for and win the jobs of tomorrow.”

The plan is organized into four major themes:

Position Maryland for growth, through accelerating efforts to sustain a knowledge-dependent, global, entrepreneurial economy, driven by innovation.

Build on, and protect, leading drivers of economic growth, such as life sciences, information technology, and federal and military-related economic activity.

Embrace regional and economic diversity, by investing in and transforming Maryland’s traditional sectors of agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.

Make it easy to do business and live in Maryland (State, local and Federal), through transparency, predictability and automation.

“The strategic plan released today took stock of Maryland’s strengths and weaknesses in the current competitive environment to create the optimum conditions to attract, retain and support the creation of businesses and jobs,” said Steve Dubin, co-chair of the MEDC and CEO of Martek Biosciences Corp. “As a life sciences executive in Maryland, I know firsthand the advantages of doing business here and the importance of building on our strengths, like workforce and diversity, and investing in economic drivers, like health and discovery. In the coming months, the Commission will be focused on implementing key strategies of the plan to create the next generation of innovative and successful companies.”

As part of today’s strategic plan release at the Science +Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, Governor O’Malley announced new tenants at the John G. Rangos Building, a hub of life sciences companies and research institutes in the East Baltimore complex. In addition to welcoming the Lieber Institute for Brain Development next month, new life sciences tenants will include Personal Genome Diagnostics, a cancer diagnostics company focused on personalized medicine; and Inostics, a German diagnostics company focused on improving cancer drug development, pushing the building to more than 80 percent occupancy. New retail tenants will include Teavolve, a minority-owned café offering gourmet tea and lite fare; and Cuban Revolution, a Cuban fusion eatery slated to open in April 2012.

“I am pleased to be here with business leaders from around the State as we join together to move Maryland forward and create the kinds of jobs that will sustain Maryland’s economy for years to come,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “It is particularly fitting to be here at the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, a place on the cutting edge of discovery which is continuing to attract new health sciences companies and will soon be a retail center.”

Earlier this week, the General Assembly passed InvestMaryland, Governor O’Malley’s key economic development initiative that will invest at least $70 million in start up and early stage companies in Maryland, creating thousands of new jobs with the potential to spur billions in follow-on capital. The funding for InvestMaryland, which will come from the auction of premium tax credits to insurance companies, will be invested by private venture capital firms selected by an independent third party and the Maryland Venture Fund, the State’s 15-year venture capital fund.

Maryland has an outstanding infrastructure to support an Innovation Economy. In January, the Milken Institute again ranked Maryland #2 in the nation for technology and science assets. According to study results, while Maryland received high rankings in human capital investment, research and development inputs, technology and science workforce, and technology concentration and dynamism, it lagged behind other states in risk capital and entrepreneurial infrastructure, demonstrating the need for Governor O’Malley’s InvestMaryland. The Index provides measurements of the technology and science assets for states, ranking them on their ability to foster and sustain a technology sector, which research has shown is a crucial factor in determining a region's future economic success. The previous study was conducted in 2008.