Sponsor comments.

• Author: Staton, Cecil P.
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Since English settlers began sending agricultural goods to Europe 400 years ago, North Carolina has been a global exporter, and eastern North Carolina has played a particularly integral role in that process.

But it's not just goods and services that we send across the country and around the world. Knowledge and people are some of our most important exports, and for more than 100 years, East Carolina University has been at the heart of making the region, state and our people an international economic, service and educational force.

Eastern North Carolina is a leader in life sciences, advanced manufacturing, value-added agriculture and more. ECU is boosting that leadership with initiatives such as the Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing Center of Excellence and the new East Carolina Research and Innovation Campus. At ECU, we are working to produce the workers, knowledge and partnerships to fuel the growth of these important economic sectors for the benefit of our region and all of North Carolina.

In doing so, East Carolina University generates more than $1 billion in economic impact to its surrounding areas and $2.8 billion across the state, according to a 2015 University of North Carolina system study. We produce professionals for many fields important to our state, such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, teaching, engineering, technology, science, business and the arts.

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