By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

DURHAM -- Despite double-digit unemployment and a shrinking state budget, North Carolina for the fifth straight has snagged the top spot on Site Selection magazine's "Top Business Climate" rankings.

North Carolina was commended for its tax climate, work force, incentives, economic development strategy, non-union environment, utility infrastructure and legal and regulatory environment by the publication.

The Tar Heel state's winning streak "demonstrates that businesses are finding in the state what they need to succeed," magazine Editor-in-Chief Mark Arend said in the announcement.

Site Selection provides expansion planning information to 44,000 executives. It is the eighth time in nine years that the state has taken the top honor.

The annual business climate ranking are determined half by performance of the state in a database tracking new and expanded business facility activity, and half by a survey of corporate site seekers across the country, according to the magazine.

The survey asks, "Based upon your experience, what are the top 10 state business climates, taking into consideration such factors as lack of red tape, financial assistance and government officials' cooperation?"

By these measures, North Carolina outranked Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, which rounded out the top five -- in that order -- on the list.

The magazine's cover story on North Carolina focused on research universities, Durham's Research Triangle Park, as well as data storage company EMC Corp.'s recent decision to invest $280 million and hire some 400 workers in the Triangle in the next five years.

The state Economic Investment Committee had approved unanimously a Job Development Investment Grant to EMC, which could yield as much as $7.4 million for the company. Durham's city and county governments also agreed to chip in $1 million and $1.2 million, respectively.

As a result, the company recently closed on a $22.6 million new data center in Durham.

"It's really exciting to see companies to use North Carolina as a springboard for their future business opportunities," said Ted Conner, vice president of Economic Development for the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce.

Conner attributed North Carolina's top ranking with Site Selection to the state government's consistent policies toward businesses.

"The state of North Carolina tends to have a more pragmatic approach in their relationship with business," he said. "It's not that one day, they are very supportive and the next day, they ignore them."

"Over time, nothing is worse [to businesses] than uncertainty," Conner added. "It's consistency over time which leads companies and also nonprofits to consider this area for investment."