KeyLogic's
HUBZone Designation Can Help Grow High Tech in West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, WV-August 26, 2003-There's a new opportunity
for bringing high-technology business and jobs to underutilized areas of
the nation, including West Virginia.
KeyLogic Systems, a knowledge management technology firm
with corporate offices in Morgantown and a core operations center in Columbia,
MD, will use the SBA's (Small Business Administration) HUBZone (Historically
Underutilized Business Zone) program to secure high-tech jobs in West Virginia.
Through the HUBZone program, KeyLogic can acquire already earmarked portions
of federal contracts for use only in qualified urban and rural areas.
"HUBZone is designed as an economic generator tool. KeyLogic
is HUBZone certified, focusing on information technology contracts. Concerted
efforts by KeyLogic, human resource agencies and state officials can attract
thousands of tech jobs to West Virginia. We can bring business here previously
done in Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley," said Jon Hammock, president
of KeyLogic.
Hammock envisions multiple startup tech programs that use
a skilled infrastructure of technologists for federal contracts. West Virginia
can become a core state and region to establish that infrastructure. It
can grow business from defense and security needs to business management,
research and other areas.
HUBZone success in the state can create a critical mass
of small technology firms to build on the I-79 High Technology Corridor,
West Virginia University's tech research initiatives and Wheeling's National
Technology Transfer Center, Hammock said.
HUBZone firms can access 3 percent or about $6 billion of
annual federal contract spending. KeyLogic is working with the SBA, West
Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, Congressman Alan Mollohan, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd
and David Satterfield, executive director of the West Virginia Development
Office.
"The HUBZone program is a new economic driver for business
diversity," Satterfield said. "West Virginia can take the lead nationally
in defining HUBZone technology business."
More
News
