Diversified assets: collaborations between the industries that make North Carolina's eastern region home will help compound their success.

• Position: EASTERN REGION ROUND TABLE - Interview

Shaping the economy of North Carolina's Eastern Region is a dynamic combination of businesses, schools and economic developers. How can they work together to spur growth in Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Nash. Onslow, Pamlico. Pitt, Wayne and Wilson counties? A panel of experts recently gathered to answer that question. Participating were Don Blake, director of quality and site-support services at Wichita, Kan.-based Spirit AeroSystems Inc.'s plant in Kinston; Don Butler director of government relations and public affairs for Warsaw-based livestock producer Murphy-Brown LLC; John Chaffee, president and CEO of North Carolina's Eastern Region Development Commission in Kinston; H.L. Stephenson III, lawyer at Waul and Smith PA's Greenville office; Dr. David Herman, president and CEO of Greenville-based Vidant Health; Phyllis Harm, vice chancellor for health sciences at East Carolina University in Greemnlle; Carol Lohr, executive director of Morehead City-based Crystal Coast Tourism Authority; G. Dennis Massey. president of Pitt Community College in Greenville; and Rick Niswander, vice chancellor for administration and finance at ECU. The round table, organized with help from Eastern Region Development Commission, was hosted and sponsored by ECU. with additional support from Ward and Smith. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

What are some ways the industries and businesses in the region are collaborating?

Chaffee: There's a breadth of activities that are important to the region. An attribute of that diversity is synergy--bringing current strengths together with an emerging sector to create jobs and wealth. The combination of agribusiness, defense and life science, with help from the Southeast Regional Development Commission and the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, is opening the door to advanced biofuels. Italy-based Chemtex International Inc. has proposed a $1 70 million biofuel-processing plant in Sampson County. Crops grown here could be used at the plant. The region's experience filling biotechnology roles will help train a workforce for the plant, which would produce fuel for the military. It may not create many farm jobs, but if you create wealth for farmers, that's money that will filter through the entire economy.

Lohr: The economy has affected tourism, but people are still traveling. They want to spend quality time with friends and families at our traditional attractions, such as the Cape Lookout National Seashore, but are also now searching for more hands-on activities. We've partnered with the local Agricultural Extension Office this past year to meet that demand by designing brochures and wall charts for farmers and produce stands that detail for visitors what produce is available in which seasons. Each farm and stand is recognized with what they grow, directions to get there and hours of operation.

Blake: Spirit's headquarters is in Wichita, Kan., which is called the Air Capital. It's also an agricultural community, just like much of the Eastern Region. Farm families and workers at agriculture-related companies excel in the advanced-manufacturing environment of aircraft factories: people who know how to innovate, know how to do a variety of things, can learn new technologies--the people who go beyond measure twice, cut once. Where do the raw materials for carbon fiber come from? Much of it comes from agricultural byproducts, so there is a definite connection.

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