Governor Jay Nixon was in St Joseph Wednesday to tout the state’s newly redesigned workforce-development programs, and to tour the new packaging and distribution warehouse at Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica.

The company will train more than 400 employees via state economic development programs. Governor Nixon said economic development requires workforce development.

 

“Especially in today’s high-tech, global marketplace, a strong and skilled workforce is, quite simply, the best economic development tool that there is,” Nixon said.

“At a time when some states are in a race to the bottom, and Washington is paralyzed by gridlock, here in Missouri we’re making real progress by bringing people together around a shared commitment: to making sure our workforce is educated, skilled, and ready to compete.”

The new packaging and distribution warehouse is a work in progress, part of a $79 million investment announced last year that is creating 115 jobs. The company broke ground on the facility near Pickett and Riverside roads last year.

Nixon had high praise for the project, and the project managers.

“We were touring this facility, seeing the confident way in which the construction managers were hitting their timelines, very predictably, the workforce here delivering this kind of product in the timelines that have been laid out, which are very aggressive.”

“You go to some other states, it takes years, and years, and years to design and build places like this. In the Show-Me State, we get things done.”