Greetings,

I’m honoured to have this opportunity to write about Minnesota and its exceptional business climate. No doubt about it, Minnesota is the best place in the country to develop and grow a business.

Don’t just take my word for it. CNBC recently named Minnesota America’s Top State for Business in 2015. The business channel analysed 60 economic measures, including workforce quality, the economy and business friendliness. CNBC’s conclusion: no state is more competitive than Minnesota when it comes to attracting and keeping businesses.

Technology and innovation, in particular, ranked high in the study, and for good reason. Minnesota has one of the strongest life science, biotech and health tech clusters in the world, featuring more than 1,700 companies  specialising in medical devices, drugs and pharmaceuticals, research and bio-agriculture.

Minnesota’s Medical Alley is the most densely concentrated cluster of medical technology companies in the United States, employing more than 35,000 people. In the past five years alone, close to 5,000 medical device patents were granted to Minnesota entities or inventors, ranking second only to California.

The state also is home to Mayo Clinic, one of the world’s leading research and medical facilities. The Rochester-based medical centre ranked No.1 in more specialties than any hospital in the United States in the 2015/16 U.S. News & World Report rankings. Officials are planning a $6 billion Destination Medical Center project that will transform Rochester into a global biomedical hub in the next 20 years.

Underscoring Minnesota’s business strength is its economic diversity and vitality. Minnesota has 17 Fortune 500 companies, including businesses that specialise in retail (Target, Best Buy), food (General Mills, Hormel), health care (UnitedHealth Group) and finance (U.S. Bancorp, Ameriprise Financial, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans).

We are fortunate to have more than 140 companies that are affiliated with UK companies and employ 16,500 people.

Thanks to its highly educated workforce and vibrant business environment, Minnesota is attracting businesses from around the world. We’d love to have you join us.

Sincerely,

Mark Dayton

Governor