Since 1869, the Knoxville Chamber has built its reputation as a leading business group in Tennessee. In May 2020, the Knoxville Chamber released its five-year strategic plan, called Path to Prosperity, to create an economic ecosystem that will fuel growth for existing industries, create future business opportunities, and generate more employment. This ecosystem will cover small businesses, talent and workforce development, entrepreneurial development programs, infrastructure, research and development, and the traditional economic development areas.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Knox County, the third-largest county in Tennessee, has seen significant growth in employment, adding around 9,000 new people to the workforce. Knoxville Chamber’s Vice President of Economic Development Doug Lawyer said the organization has “seen both existing businesses expanding as well as new companies coming in, with good mix of industry types — from information technology and cybersecurity-type operations to traditional manufacturing to logistics services are areas that we’re seeing a lot of growth in.”
Lawyer stressed the importance of research and development in economic growth. In fact, Knoxville houses some world-class technology assets: the University of Tennessee, a major research university; the Tennessee Valley Authority, an electric utility corporation in the USA; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the world’s premier research institution that houses the world’s fastest supercomputer.
The group intends to continue collaboration with companies that can capitalize on their technology assets, such as the Japanese-owned DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee, Inc., a manufacturer of electrification and safety components, instrument clusters, and automotive electronic products.
Other Japanese companies with a strong footprint in manufacturing and automotive components in Tennessee are EXEDY America Corporation, a manufacturer of drivetrain components and related systems, mainly torque converters and manual clutches; OTICS USA, Inc., an automobile part manufacturer; and JTEKT Corporation, a global leader in engineering and manufacturing automotive systems, bearing solutions, and high-performance machine tools.
“Our value proposition is we feel we have very similar technology assets at a much lower cost of operation and just as high, if not better, quality of life than other places,” said Lawyer, who stressed that Knoxville’s technology assets perform at par with Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle.
Aside from being an Industry 4.0 hub, Knoxville also prides itself on having a dynamic Asian community, a vibrant cultural community, and amazing outdoor recreation assets.
