Reinventing Texas

"It's the persona of Texas. But it's more than that. It's the ingenuity and the digging in. This is a competitive, proud state," Arnett said. "We've had to reinvent ourselves."

While still No. 1 in crude oil and cattle, Texas is also No. 1 among the 50 states in jobs created in the 1990s. Bucking a national trend away from manufacturing growth, Texas is also No. 1 in manufacturing jobs created in the 1990s. More important, Texas has the infrastructure to keep up the momentum well into the next century.

The state ranks No. 1 in the number of foreign trade zones, miles of rail for freight service and national highway system miles. Among the 15 most populous states, Texas boasts the lowest total energy prices and lowest natural gas costs for industrial users. With the youngest population (median age: 31.9) of those 15 states, the state has a ready and growing work force that translates into an enviable calling card in a nation with an increasingly aging population.

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University reports the state's population has been growing at about 2 percent per year, versus a 0.3 percent annual growth rate in the late 1980s. At the current rate, the state's population will double in 35 years.

Industrial, office and other non-residential construction activity increased by nearly 40 percent from 1992 to 1995, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Construction employment increased from less than 2 percent annually between 1991 and 1993 to 7.4 percent in 1994 and 8 percent in 1995.

Houston, which fell harder than most Texas cities during the mid-1980s, is still oil-based but feeding an annual growth rate nearly double the nation's average with new, energy-independent sectors such as computer manufacturing and medical technology. The nation's fourth-largest city is suddenly the new Mecca for international call centers.

Big D is becoming even bigger, with the sprawling Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex ranked No. 1 in new facilities and expansions in 1995. Suburban cities such as Richardson are becoming the heart of the state's new Telecom Corridor. By the year 2000, D/FW International Airport will become the world's busiest airport.

In West Texas, cotton and cattle are making way for technology and telecommunications from Abilene to Amarillo. Austin, once a sleepy college town, is now a leading computer and developing technology center, having tripled its high-technology employment in the past decade. Samsung Electronics recently chose Austin as the future home of its first memory chip plant in the United States.

From Houston to El Paso, and Laredo to San Antonio, cities are vying for international gateway status to neighboring Mexico and beyond, with busy Interstate 35 competing with a planned new Interstate 69 corridor for NAFTA Superhighway status.

"Mexico is not only a good place to manufacture, it's also a budding marketplace," said former U.S. Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher Sr. of Houston, now chair of the U.S. Council of the Mexico-U.S. Business Council. "When we team up with Mexico, we not only add jobs in this economy," Mosbacher said. "It also makes us more competitive with the rest of the world."

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