ALABAMA DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

Most commonly known as the state agency for economic development, the Alabama Development Office (ADO) has one mission - simply to create jobs in Alabama.

Established by the Alabama Legislature in 1969, ADO coordinates economic development resources leading to quality job creation throughout Alabama. ADO professionals work through a combination of efforts identifying prospects to grow and broaden Alabama's industry base. The agency markets Alabama to the world identifying companies who could have an expansion project in the Southeast over the next three to five years. ADO also fields calls from site consultants who are hired by companies to find a location for their company

ADO works with existing companies in the state who want to expand their business as well as companies who may want to locate in the state, also known as "projects." When trying to land projects, Wade explained, ADO assembles an incentive package including statutory incentives, or those approved by the state legislature, and potentially non-statutory incentives that require governor's approval and are offered based on the number of jobs, the salary range for the jobs and the overall investment the company plans to make.

Statewide industry targets for business include the automotive sector, whereby almost 60, 000 people in Alabama work and more than 700, 000 vehicles are manufactured annually; the aviation/aerospace sector; the life sciences and bio-technical sector; and distribution businesses. Additionally, specialty industry sectors like biomedical in Huntsville and Birmingham are targets as well as shipbuilding in Mobile.

Representatives from ADO utilize a number of venues to market Alabama at trade shows internationally and domestically. Regionally, representatives travel to numerous locales to market Alabama at plastics, biomedical and other industry-specific trade shows.