Schellinger: Toyota Deal ‘Huge’ For Indiana

Indiana Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger will be one of the main speakers at the event.

Indiana’s secretary of commerce says Tuesday’s announcement of Toyota’s $600 million investment into its Princeton plant speaks to the faith the company has in Indiana and how much it values the state’s work force. Jim Schellinger says it will take a regional effort to fill the 400 jobs expected to be added by 2019.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Schellinger said the southwest Indiana region is working through the Regional Cities Initiative to create "cool places to live, work and play."

"The (Millennials) are going to pick where they want to play, where they want to live, then they’re going to pick where they want to work," said Schellinger. "Some of the projects happening down here in southwest Indiana are just unbelievable and and they’re going to attract people (and) talent to this area that want to live here and play here and then they’re going to work at great companies like Toyota.

Schellinger said the Toyota announcement will strengthen Indiana’s reputation as an international center for manufacturing. He says the partnership with Toyota has been "amazing" and it speaks to the work of past Indiana governors to build a level of trust, not only with Toyota, but other national and international companies.