Economic Summit Looks To Service Sector

Economy Congress The Alabama Economic Summit was held in Mobile Friday.

by Chad Petri

Published: Fri, February 20, 2009 - 5:06 pm CST Last Updated: Fri, February 20, 2009 - 5:08 pm CST

Walking through labs at the Mitchell Cancer Institute, Doctor Eddie Reed isn't the first person that would come to mind when you talk about the service sector.

“We serve people by giving what we believe is high quality medical care,” says Doctor Reed. Working among high tech equipment and cutting edge research is one of the reasons reed came here eight months ago.

“My wife loves it, we like the food, we like the feel of the town,” says Reed. Its places like the cancer center attendees of the Alabama Economic Summit were pointing to today as parts of the service sector south Alabama can rely on for growth.

“To not look down on something like the service sector but count on it being a big part of us coming out of this economic downturn,” says Republican Congressman Joe Bonner. He says high quality service jobs like ones here are needed to help the area get through the economic downturn.

“They are part of the healthcare industry itself, federal spending will be focused very heavily on it over the next several years,” says Bonner. Governor Bob Riley, the Congressman and others say once the economy does turn around Alabama's in a good position to recover.

“If I wasn't governor I'd probably move to south Alabama and become and investor and a developer,” says Governor Riley.

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