TECHNOLOGY companies bring hope for economic growth in New York

• Days after last month's $4.8 billion mega-deal between the state and IBM Corp, Intel and other high-tech firms, a technology center in Canandaigua, Ontario County, started receiving inquiries from companies interested in locating there.
• And only days before the announcement, companies from the Hudson Valley toured the GlobalFoundries plant in Saratoga County in hopes of building partnerships with the new $4.6 billion microchip factory.
• The activity signals how New York has become a leader in research and development of nanotechnology and could provide the backbone for growth in the stagnant upstate economy.
• It comes at a needed time. Consumer confidence has fallen in the state, a Siena College survey found this month. In August, the state's unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, down from 8.3 percent a year ago. The national unemployment rate was 9.1 percent last month.
• Gov. Andrew Cuomo's announcement with IBM and Intel said 2,500 new jobs would be created across the Hudson Valley and west along the Thruway in Utica and Canandaigua.
• What has created optimism among business groups is that the nanotechnology research, which aims to develop faster and cheaper semiconductor chips for computers and other devices, may also spur the manufacturing of the chips in New York.
• That's what has happened with the research at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Albany. It helped lead to the GlobalFoundries plant, which will employ about 1,400 workers and was aided by about $1 billion in state aid and tax breaks.
• IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung announced Sept. 27 a five-year agreement for computer-chip research in New York that will create or retain about 6,900 jobs. The 2,500 new jobs are expected to include 950 at IBM's laboratory in Yorktown Heights in Westchester County and the chip plant in East Fishkill.