More than 400 business leaders packed Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station last night to hear from North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. The occasion: the 150th anniversary of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce.
In his remarks, Governor Cooper stressed the importance of repealing HB-2 and boosting Wilmington’s film industry.
“The film industry has been an important economic boon for North Carolina and the Wilmington area but we know two things have hurt it. House Bill 2, and the revised film incentives which have been ratcheted down. I think we have to work on both of those areas, to bring film and TV back to the Wilmington area and to our state.”
“The evidence shows that it brought hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to our state, and we need to make sure that we take the steps necessary to bring it back," he added. "It’s still happening here but not at the level it was before. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Before the chamber meeting, Cooper also met with film industry leaders in Wilmington. The governor says he wants to revive tax incentives for film and TV productions.
Prior to the governor’s keynote address, the chamber unveiled the logo and tagline of the new regional economic development marketing initiative, which is tied to the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament. The logo reads “Choose Cape Fear – Discover Opportunity.”
Wilmington Chamber President and CEO Natalie English:
“We are excited that the Wilmington Chamber had this opportunity to bring together 14 economic development organizations – four counties – are represented and we’ll be able to market this whole region for business across the whole globe.”
“The golf tournament is just a catalyst to be able to tell the world who Wilmington is, who the Cape Fear region is and what we have to offer in the way of doing business, expansions, relocations, growing jobs in the economy,” English said.