Dubai-bound: Michigan economic officials to pitch state's life-sciences industry

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Credit www.michiganadvantage.org

Michigan wants the world to know about its life-sciences industry, so it's taking its show on the road -- or, in this case, overseas.    

Representatives from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation are attending a health conference in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

We make lots of technical stuff here, everything from robots to replacement body parts to medicines.

Oakland County Deputy Executive Matt Gibb will be among those pitching the state's products.

He says there's a huge untapped market for these products in places like Dubai.

"They're growing very rapidly. As we all know, they have an immense amount of opportunity and wealth to be able to partner with companies here. Our job is to tell the rest of the world that, 'Hey, wait a minute. Those beautiful cars we build, and all that engineering talent? Yeah, we can do that in medical and life science and the advancement of all those things,'" Gibb says.

He says life sciences is one of the fastest-growing sectors for job growth and investment in Michigan, with more than 500 companies already established in the state.