WEDC COO discusses Foxconn impact at WMC Policy Day

Foxconn’s goal is “to do as much Wisconsin business as possible,” according to Tricia Braun, COO for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.

She spoke as part of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s Policy Day in Madison yesterday, addressing attendees over lunch.

Braun touted the extra economic positives of Foxconn building a high-tech manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin, saying she expects benefits outside the “headline numbers.”

“What those would translate to are so much bigger than that,” she said.

About $1.4 billion of the $4.26 billion Foxconn is expected to spend on supplier purchases annually will go directly to Wisconsin companies, she said. Of the agreed-upon $10 billion figure, about $5.7 billion will go toward construction and equipment sourced from Wisconsin companies, she said.

She also pointed to the job creation estimates as a major benefit to the state. From the construction effort alone, 10,000 direct jobs and 6,000 indirect jobs are expected. In addition to the 13,000 jobs Foxconn is expected to create, 22,000 indirect and induced jobs are also being predicted by WEDC.

She said when Foxconn puts down that $10 billion investment, it “brings others that want to be a part of it… either part of the supply chain or they’re sort of the offshoots of that.’’

She added: “And that can only be measured so much; it just is one of these things that just organically happens as the ecosystem develops.’’

Currently, $235 million is spent annually in Wisconsin in the industry cluster of semiconductors and electronics manufacturing.

“We already have a substantial amount of suppliers in Wisconsin, so that number will just continue to grow,” she added.

She added that Foxconn is active in multiple high-tech fields, not just limited to manufacturing LCD panels for TVs and entertainment displays.

“The company itself is much more diverse than just that — that’s just one piece of their business,” she said. “They also have several operations in the health care field, health care device manufacturing.’’

She also said Foxconn will attract and train talent in these fields, and the state’s education systems must be ready.

“Our education systems, workforce, technical colleges, our universities, private and public, really need to be helping to prepare… So they’ll be filling the pipeline of these high-caliber candidates,” she said.

–By Alex Moe
WisBusiness.com