American British Business 2006/7

ABB 2006/7 | State Profiles | Western region | Colorado

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Colorado

For 11 years running, the State of Colorado has received the highest of honours for its top-ranked business environment. The prestigious Corporation for Enterprise Development has awarded Colorado “Straight A’s” for nine of the past eleven years, and has placed the state on its “Honor Roll” in each of the last 11 years.

What is it about Colorado’s business climate that leads to such high rankings? Perhaps it is the state’s superior workforce – it has the second highest percentage of college graduates in the nation. Or, maybe it is Colorado’s 4.63% corporate income tax rate – the fourth lowest in the US. Then again, it could be that businesses flourish when their costs are low. In Colorado, electricity prices are 14% below the national average. Likewise, natural gas prices for industrial consumers are 26% below the national average.

Whatever the reason, Colorado is a great place to do business. In addition to strong agriculture, transportation, and telecommunications industries, the state’s key business clusters include:

Aerospace and satellite – Colorado has over 100 space-related companies, many of which play a key role in developing technologies for US homeland defence. The state has also gained renown as home to two of the most important segments of the commercial space industry: Direct Broadcast Television and Remote Sensing.
Bioscience – Nearly 20,000 people work in Colorado’s 300 biotechnology firms and research institutions. The state is also home to the first “biopark” developed west of the Mississippi River. Adjacent to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, the Fitzsimons “Life Sciences City” is the largest medical-related redevelopment effort in the country. This $4.3bn “square mile of life sciences” has become the launch pad, hub, and focus for the biotechnology industry in the Rocky Mountain Region.
Computer software and storage – With a workforce of over 50,000, Colorado ranks second in the nation in computer and information science experts. The cities of Boulder, Denver, Ft Collins, and Colorado Springs all rank in the top 20 cities nationwide for concentration of software-related jobs. Leading technology companies benefiting from the superb Colorado business climate include: IBM, StorageTek (headquarters), Hewlett Packard, EDS, Sun Microsystems, First Data Corporation (headquarters), PeopleSoft, and Agilent Technologies.
Energy, mining, and natural resources – Beyond the mining production that takes place here, the state is recognised as the mining hub of the US. Denver is the corporate headquarters of the world’s largest gold-mining company, Newmont Mining. And the Denver Gold Club, the premier trade association for the international gold-mining industry, calls Colorado home. Other key industry players include Orica, Behre Dolbear, Knight Piesold and other gold exploration leaders such as Gold Fields and Anglo Gold North America. The Colorado School of Mines is one of the top-ranked mining and engineering schools in the nation. Its Mining Engineering programme has been ranked number one in the nation by the Gourman Report. It is also the only school in the world that offers doctoral programmes in all five major earth science disciplines.

Several leading British firms have already discovered Colorado’s world-class international airport (with daily non-stop flights from Denver to Heathrow), 300 days of sunshine, and its unsurpassed quality of life. Join companies like BP Amoco; Tomkins; SDL International; British Airways; Aggregate Industries; Norgren, Inc; and Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group in Colorado today.

For more information, contact: Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade Tel: +1 303 892 3850

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