By Steven Allen Adams, The Weirton Daily Times
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice and the top Republican majority leadership of the West Virginia Legislature went before the state’s business owners Thursday touting economic successes over the last six years and laying out new visions for the future of the state.
Justice was the opening keynote speaker at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting and Business Summit. The 85th annual event takes place at the end of summer at the Justice-owned Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. The event was live-streamed over the chamber’s YouTube account.
“I truly believe this state has made incredible strides,” Justice said. “In rolling up our sleeves, the good Lord gave us some great ideas, like the Roads to Prosperity program, and being proud of what we are by committing real dollars to tourism. Along the way, we continued to help our vets, we helped our teaching community and made educations our centerpiece. With all that, we continued to take off and West Virginia started to grab ahold of itself and really go.”
Justice said the major thing he tried to accomplish during his first term as governor is changing the state’s image to make it more welcoming to business. Those efforts helped result in the recruitment of companies, such as Virgin Hyperloop and DataRobot, as well as Brad Smith’s Ascend program which announced its first recruits who will move to and work in West Virginia in exchange for incentives…
