Opportunities and Resources - En Español
International firms such as Sumitomo, ST Microelectronics, CEMEX, and Stantec, have already discovered the advantages of locating in Phoenix. Sumitomo of Japan has a plant that manufactures silicon wafers. The European company ST Microelectronics has a factory that produces semiconductors. CEMEX of Mexico has concrete mixing plants and distribution facilities. Stantec Consultants, a subsidiary of a Canadian company, is one of the largest engineering firms in Phoenix.
Opportunities
- Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the United States with a population of more than 1.5 million residents and an extended metropolitan population of more than 4.4 million residents.
- The gross Metropolitan Product of Phoenix grew in real terms by 7.6 percent in 2006, faster than any other U.S. city, to reach $180 billion.
- The cost of living and doing business in Phoenix is lower than in any other major metropolitan area in the United States.
- Phoenix has particularly good opportunities for companies in the aerospace, bioscience, IT, software development, and renewable energy industries.
- Phoenix is the hub of the rapidly growing Southwest, close to the major markets of Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas.
Resources
- The Phoenix area has a talented labor pool fed by 330,000 college students. There are four public and about nine private academic institutions located in the Phoenix metropolitan area. list of academic institutions
- The median age of the population is 33 years old, younger than the national average, and 28 percent of the total population hold a bachelor's degree or higher.
- Phoenix international airport, Sky Harbor Airport, is one of the ten busiest airports in the world for aircraft operations with non-stop flights to every major American city.
- Arizona has an abundant supply of electricity from various sources, including the largest U.S. nuclear plant, dams, coal and gas burning plants as well as wind and solar plants.
- The water supply to Phoenix via canals from local reservoirs and the Colorado River is adequate to meet projected population growth for at least the next 100 years.
