President Barack Obama announced the creation of a new public-private manufacturing plant in North Carolina on Wednesday after promising to create "good-paying American jobs" during last year's State of the Union address, the Associated Press reported.
President Obama announced the manufacturing company will develop next-generation power electronics and will aid the manufacturing industry in the state that was badly hit during the recession, according to the AP. Funding for the program is coming from $200 million in existing federal money.
"We're not going to turn things around overnight. A lot of jobs were lost in the textile industry and furniture-making," Obama said at the North Carolina State University arena where 2,000 people gathered to hear him speak, the AP reported.
"This can be a breakthrough year for America," Obama continued, "the pieces are all there to start bringing back more of the jobs that we've lost over the past decade."
Since the end of the recession, the manufacturing industry has been steadily growing and has created more than a half-million jobs in the past four years with 80,000 jobs added in the past five months alone, according to the Obama administration, the AP reported.
"Manufacturing is a bright spot in this economy," Obama said during the speech, according to the AP.
The manufacturing institute will be led North Carolina State University and will include six other universities and 18 businesses, the AP reported.
The North Carolina manufacturing hub will develop energy-efficient, high-power electronic chips and devices that will be used to build motors, consumer electronics and other small, faster and more efficient devices that will aid the power grid, according to the AP.
Two other "innovative hubs" will be announced by the Obama administration in the following weeks: one hub will focus on digital design and the other on developing light-weight metals, the AP reported.
