Made to measure.

• Author: Smith, Jane W.
• Position: READERSWRITE - Letter to the editor

The conclusions drawn in a recent article by Edward Martin ("Do the Pieces Still Fit?" February), mainly that the achievements of the regional economic-development partnerships are difficult to measure, strike me as very puzzling. Had Mr. Martin taken a moment to visit our organization's website, www.ncse.org, he might easily have viewed a great deal of data on the results of our work during the past 15 years.

Since opening the books on our first project in 1995, the Southeast Commission's marketing and business outreach efforts have directly supported the arrival or expansion of some 103 companies in our 11-county region. These firms have made $903.3 million in industrial expansion here and created 8,275 jobs. We track a trove of other figures regarding our work, data that our staff is always eager and proud to share with business journalists or anyone who might be interested. For instance, since July 1, 2008, our lead-generation programs have yielded working relationships with 197 companies whose expansion or relocation plans are a strong fit with our region. Of these, 72 have...