MARYLAND —Economic downturn affected many counties and states around the country. You can hear and read bad news from radio and the Internet almost every day, but it seems we don’t find the obvious suffering around our “home”-Montgomery County of Maryland. That is because Montgomery County or Maryland is very lucky by its unique geographic position. Montgomery County is within the federal triangle or at the backyard of federal government.
There are 19 federal agencies in Montgomery County. Government fuels surrounding companies almost in every industry. For example, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institute of Health (NIH) are both headquartered in Montgomery County. These two big government agencies, not only employ more than ten thousand and twenty thousand people each, but also directly or indirectly fund many biotech firms in Montgomery County. Lockeed Martin, the largest defense contractor, is close to the Pentagon, also fuels nearby companies of metro Maryland by providing more than twenty thousands of jobs.
About 1000 business representatives from more than 500 business members of Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce (MCCC) filled the conference hall at the 50th Anniversary/Annual Dinner on June 4th. Every one was in a very upbeat attitude towards this global economic recession and geared for network opportunities for future success. The whole atmosphere fit well to the theme of the dinner “A View from Here”.
Gigi Godwin, President and CEO of MCCC, commented that “although the commercial or residential realty sectors in Montgomery County were affected by this economic downturn, service sectors/hospitality businesses and IT sectors are actually flourishing. So, in general businesses in Montgomery County were not really affected. Many companies well positioned themselves by aggressively evolving and adapting to new business climate and reinvented themselves with new opportunities.”
