Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro lauded Lehigh Valley leaders for their continued ability to attract new jobs and companies to the region during his address to the standing-room only crowd of about 1,000 at Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) Annual Meeting on March 17.

In his second address to the Annual Meeting in four years, Shapiro explained how his administration has created and implemented strategies to put Pennsylvania in the position to compete for big economic wins, such as the $3.5 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing campus that Eli Lilly and Company plans to build in the Lehigh Valley.

Here are his complete remarks:

"It's wonderful to see all of you here. I want to begin by thanking Don. I want to say thank you for your great leadership and extraordinary impact all across this community and all across our Commonwealth. 

I think Don's commitment to public service in this community has made a real difference, not just in the public office offices he has held as County Executive, Mayor and Cabinet Secretary under one of my predecessors, Governor Rendell, but truly, as a fine civic leader who's brought people together with one singular goal, making the Lehigh Valley a better place to live, a better place for companies to thrive, and a better place for all Pennsylvanians here.

Today, the Lehigh Valley is a leader in economic development, innovation and job creation. And I believe you can draw a straight line between the progress we have made and the work that's been done by Don Cunningham.

I’m especially happy to be here in the Valley today on the eve of Lehigh’s big basketball game tomorrow. I just wanted you to know I picked Lehigh to kick the butts of Prairie View, wherever the hell Prairie View is. I don't think they should have to play in a play-in. I mean, they won their tournament, they should get right in, but we're with Lehigh, by the way, a great example of one of the fine higher education institutions that we're proud of here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as an example throughout all of our Commonwealth. So congratulations to Lehigh.

I'm a homer, but I didn't pick you to go all the way to the  Final Four. I felt like I had to preserve my pool a little bit. But I did pick you to win that first game.

The first time I addressed this room, I was your newly elected Governor. I think I was just a few months into my term, and I wanted to come to Lehigh Valley to lay a clear marker down when it comes to economic development. I told you very clearly that day, about three years ago, that I wanted to compete again as a commonwealth. I shared my vision for us moving at the speed of business, taking the collaborative example that Don and others here have mastered, and using that all across Pennsylvania.

I knew we needed to make some real change. Because, let's be frank, before I took office as your Governor, we really weren't even on the field of competition. Too many other states were winning the big deals, while we unfortunately were left behind. There were a lot of reasons for that. Our permitting process was just simply too damn slow. Our economic development toolkit was outdated and significantly underfunded. Some of the very programs we relied on literally hadn't been touched since Don Cunningham served in the state government. And despite having an extraordinary workforce trained in our union halls and in our top-notch universities like Lehigh, too many were forced to look elsewhere for good jobs, instead of staying right here in Pennsylvania.

We weren't able to effectively connect the dots between all those great assets we have here in our Commonwealth. And as I said before, it's not just that we were losing. We weren't even on the field of competition. That has dramatically changed over the last three years. Today, I wanted to come back to the Lehigh Valley and talk to you about the progress that we've made here and how this is serving now as an economic engine for the rest of Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley has been a leader in our economic growth. We're building new industrial sites, factories and labs and power plants. We're improving our Main Streets and supporting the small businesses that line them. And on my watch, we’ve achieved a record amount of economic growth. Consider this for a moment. Over the last three years, we have worked collaboratively with the private sector to create 22,000 new jobs and secure $40.4 billion in private sector investment.

I want you to understand what those numbers mean, so let me break it down for you. That level of economic growth represents the entirety of the last 15 years of economic growth in Pennsylvania combined, just to show you how significant our growth has been. And that includes billions of dollars and thousands of new jobs from companies that are located right here, are expanding right here in the Valley. Companies like Kerry Group, a global food and beverage company based in Ireland - Happy St Patrick's Day, by the way, everyone - who are investing here in the Valley, buying up a plant in Hanover Township, where they will roast and extract coffee and create 61 new jobs. Companies like Schless Bottles, who relocated its manufacturing facility from Jersey to Allentown, to create 98 new jobs in the process. And of course, Eli Lilly and Company, who are setting up shop here in this community, making the largest investment in life sciences, not in Lehigh Valley history, but in Pennsylvania history, right here in the Valley.

They’ve invested $3.5 billion dollars. They've invested 2,800 new jobs that are coming here. And if you were there that day when Lilly made their announcement, one of the things that was so important to Dave Ricks, their outstanding CEO, was all the downstream impact of that investment. The car dealerships, the clothing stores, the Main Streets that are all going to benefit because Lilly chose to plant a flag, the most valuable pharmaceutical company in the world, right here in Pennsylvania.

Alongside local government and economic development leaders like Don we have great partners like Mayor Willie Reynolds and Mayor Matt Tuerk and County Executives Siegel and Zrinski. We are working closely with our partners on the ground to create real economic opportunities for our people and our businesses and our communities. Let me tell you, it's not just here in the Lehigh Valley where Pennsylvania has been moving forward. We've taken the work that we've done here, the lessons that we've learned here from the conversation we began here three years ago, and we've expanded it across the Commonwealth. We did it by taking four very concrete steps in order to make progress.

First, we put the right people in place, leaders like Secretary Rick Siger and his team from the Department of Community and Economic Development, experts in their field who understand the power of partnership and working with you. In addition to that, we created a brand new office in Pennsylvania, the Office of Transformation and Opportunity, your one-stop-shop for getting your business off the ground here in Pennsylvania and doing it real quick. It started with one man, Ben Kirshner, who you heard from before. Clap for Ben, there you go.

And now Ben has grown that office into an absolutely critical source of information, source of knowledge and know-how, and with a bunch of doers who know how to get stuff done here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition to that, I'm grateful for the contributions of Secretary Pat Browne, who joins us today, someone who's a stranger to none of you, and I'm proud to have him on my Cabinet as Secretary of Revenue. Why is that important to mention the Secretary of Revenue? Pat not only brings great expertise to the work we're doing in economic development, but our entire Cabinet, from our Secretary of Agriculture to our Secretary of Revenue to our Secretary of the Department of Economic Development, all work together to grow our economy in Pennsylvania. You've got a job in your neighborhood, you've got a job in your rural, suburban or urban community, good things can happen to that neighborhood, and our new Cabinet is all in on that.

Second, after building the right team, we brought Republicans and Democrats together in a divided Legislature to invest billions of dollars in economic development. I've learned a lot from crisscrossing Pennsylvania. I learned a lot from listening to the good people of Pennsylvania. When I come here to the Lehigh Valley, I learned a lot about sensibility. There's a certain sensibility in this community and understanding that we've got to find ways to work together. We've got to find ways to kind of ignore the noise that too often times defines our politics, especially at the national level, and instead focus on bringing people together to get stuff done. That's the Lehigh Valley way, and that's what we try to do all across Pennsylvania.

Third, we've worked aggressively to reform our permitting processes and speed up government, slashing wait times, quite literally eliminating all of the backlog that existed in our state government. And finally, after decades, fixing our permitting process in Pennsylvania. We were somewhere around 48th in the country when it came to permitting. By the way, you don't want to be 50. You want to be first. Fifty is bad. It took years to get a permit to build a building in Pennsylvania. It took eight weeks just to get a business license the day I was sworn in as your Governor. Today, that same business license, you're getting that same day, in just one day. And that building that used to take you three or four years to get a permit for, we're now getting it for you in three to six months. We established a system that guarantees speed. We tell you when you apply for your permit how long it's going to take to get your permit, how long it's going to take to get that application for that license processed. And if we miss that deadline, for the first time ever, we'll give you your money back. We literally have a program called Pennsylvania Payback. We will give you your money back. And you know why I'm willing to make that bet? Because I believe in Ben Kirshner and our team to not have to pay you back. Because we're going to get our permits out on time. Let me put some data behind that. Now, over the last three years, permits, licenses and applications, we have processed over 40 million. 40 million. You know how many refunds we've had to pay for a permit being late? Five.

You know this already? Did you tell them? Well, I’ll see you all later … you really listened when Ben was talking. That’s amazing. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of Ben. I'm proud of his team. And listen, I'm grateful that you want to do business here. And if you want to do business here, we have a responsibility to meet you there. We have responsibility to work just as hard and just as fast as you do. If I say anything else that Ben has already said, just raise your hand and tell me to move on...

Here's the fourth thing we did, which Ben probably told you about, we created a plan. Because here's the thing, you know this. You're on the business, you're on the government, and you're going to spend a dollar, you better have a wise sense of where you’re going to go, a plan on how to spend that dollar. So, we made it very, very clear that through this comprehensive strategy, we're going to invest in very specific areas where we thought are high value. I would point out that I announced our comprehensive plan, the first one in 20 years, here in the Lehigh Valley, two years ago at OraSure’s facility in Bethlehem. In that plan, we put an emphasis on life sciences, because life sciences, we believe, is an industry where we are poised for explosive growth and opportunity and innovation. Case in point, this morning, we announced a company called TerraPower Isotopes is moving to the Bellwether District in Philadelphia to manufacture cancer-fighting drugs using nuclear science. They could have gone literally anywhere in the world. They chose Pennsylvania. They literally looked at 350 different sites. Now, why do I mention a Philly company, or company that's located in Philly? Because we understand that there's going to be enormous downstream impact, and they're going to partner with companies here in the Lehigh Valley as they grow. They chose to invest $450 million to open up this facility and create 225 initial jobs.

They see, and their CEOs have told us this, they see the real momentum here in the Lehigh Valley and all across Pennsylvania. And understand my focus has not just been on Philly and Pittsburgh. My focus has been on places like the Lehigh Valley, in our rural communities, on our farmlands, and in making sure we bring innovation and growth all across Pennsylvania. Here in the Lehigh Valley, we've seen important growth, companies like B. Braun that have made the Valley home for nearly five decades, and under my administration, they're now investing $20 million more, set to grow their footprint here. It's why we were able to convince Lilly to come here and locate in Fogelsville. Over the last two years, our administration has worked tirelessly with Don and many other partners who are in this room, trying to convince Lilly to come here. We were aggressive. We refused to take no for an answer. It's because I'm bullish, not just on this Commonwealth, but on this region and that particular parcel of land where I thought Lilly could build a world-class home for decades to come. We believe in the potential of this region. And now, three and a half billion dollars later, we can toast the fact that the world's largest, most profitable pharmaceutical company, most valuable pharmaceutical company, sees what we see. It validates the work that we've been doing for years, and it shows that the Lehigh Valley is here to stay when it comes to economic growth, and we've only just begun.

This is really just, I think, one example of how the Valley has proven itself time and time again over the years as a major player when it comes to economic development, a major driver of our economy in Pennsylvania. That really is thanks to the collective work of this great organization. It’s why I came here three years ago to plant a flag, and why I'm back here today to celebrate the progress that we made. I think today the Lehigh Valley serves as a model for communities across Pennsylvania, really across the country, to be able to follow. Don't just take my word for it. Two weeks ago, Site Selection Magazine named this region the Number One mid-sized market in the entire country for economic development. I think that's an incredible achievement, and a testament the work we have all done as a group to put the Lehigh Valley on the map and to grow the economy in this region. The budget that I announced last month builds on the momentum that we are seeing here in the Valley and all across Pennsylvania, capitalizing on the momentum and excitement we're seeing in the life sciences to spurring on innovation, providing funds for clinical research trials, backing startups when they're ready to commercialize and just need a little bit of help to bring new ideas to the market. To bringing those new grant initiatives like PA First that are strengthening our talent pipeline, to doubling down on our commitment to growing our Main Streets, including America's Best Main Street in Bethlehem, congratulations.

I believe Pennsylvania is on the rise. And it's because of the work that we're doing to make our Commonwealth competitive again, by working with local economic development organizations like yours, by making targeted investments that capitalize on our strengths and leaning in on the areas where we have the most potential to grow while leaning in on the extraordinary workforce we have here in Pennsylvania.

Get this. For 31 consecutive months, Pennsylvania has had a lower unemployment rate than the national rate. Last year, we ranked third in the entire country, the entire country, for the most jobs created, trailing only Texas and North Carolina. You know, I'm hungry and I'm competitive as hell, so watch out, Texas and North Carolina. Think about that. For years, Pennsylvania was in the bottom of the pack. We're now third in the country. Under our administration's leadership, Site Selection Magazine has named us the top state in the Northeast for economic competitiveness. … Forbes rated us one of the best states in the country to start a business, and a Moody's analysis that carefully looked at all of the individual economic indicators showed that we have the only growing economy in the entire northeastern part of the United States. That's extraordinary growth in the Commonwealth Pennsylvania and it's a testament to the work that we have all done together. 

But I want you to know we're not resting on our laurels. We are going to keep at it and I'm hungry for more. I expect to come back here the next year and the year after and the year after to talk about how we built up this extraordinary momentum and took it even further, further than some of you in this room can even imagine right now. And I'll be back in this room, because this is a room, this is a group, and this is a region that has represented itself as leaders here in this Commonwealth and in this country for nearly two centuries. Just behind you, across the street from where now gather, are the SteelStacks of Bethlehem Steel that remind us of that history nearly 200 years ago. In the first 140 years, the leadership looked like that blast furnace and the molten hot steel that it produced, steel that would be used to forge the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge and to protect our freedoms overseas. Today, that leadership still exists here in the Lehigh Valey. It looks a little different. Today, it looks like high-tech manufacturing and life sciences, innovation that is literally saving lives. And while that innovation may look different, it all starts in the same place, right here in the Lehigh Valley, the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is competing again. Pennsylvania is winning again. We've got the right people in place, including my friend and your leader, Don Cunningham. We have a strategic plan. We are implementing it. It is working. We're moving at the speed of business. As a result of all of that, Pennsylvania is on the rise and the Lehigh Valley is leading the way.

I want to close by saying thank you. Thank you for your commitment to Pennsylvania. Thank you for the leadership each of you have shown in your business. It would be easy for you to stay in your office, to work on your particular service or product that you're putting forward, but instead, you've taken time out of your busy days to be here to be part of the collective, be part of this joint effort to grow our economy and create opportunities. I believe here in Pennsylvania, every single one of our neighbors should have the freedom to chart their own course and the opportunity to succeed. We succeed by having a great education system. We succeed by having safe communities to live in. We succeed when people have a job in a community that they love, that they can see themselves planting roots, living a good, long life. That is the Lehigh Valley. A center of opportunity. A center of growth. And a driver of our economy. Thank you all very much for having me."  

(Photos by Marco Calderon Photography)