Mississippi Gov. Musgrove wins expanded investment in Tokyo

TOKYO - Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said Wednesday he has won expanded investment deals from Japanese companies providing parts and services to Nissan&#39;s auto assembly plant in his home state. <br> <br> Musgrove, in Japan to strengthen ties with Nissan and suppliers, also said he was in talks with other companies that have yet to sign business deals in Mississippi. <br> <br> On Wednesday, Musgrove met officials from Calsonic Kansei Corp., a maker of dashboard parts and exhaust systems that is building in Mississippi&#39;s Warren County. <br> <br> Musgrove, on his first visit to Japan as governor, also met officials from Japan&#39;s Ministry of Economy and Trade and had plans to pay a visit at tire maker Sumitomo, a company with three plants in Mississippi. <br> <br> &#34;It has been a very productive trip to Japan,&#34; Musgrove said. &#34;We wanted to show the aggressive stance of Mississippi. We also wanted to say &#39;thank you&#39; to Nissan and all the supplier companies for locating in our state.&#34; <br> <br> Musgrove declined to name the new companies he was courting in Japan. He also declined to identify companies that had agreed during his visit to expand their Mississippi investments, saying they would make announcements themselves. <br> <br> Musgrove, who departs Tokyo on Friday and arrives home Saturday, also met Nissan officials, including chief executive Carlos Ghosn. <br> <br> Nissan plans to begin production next summer at its dlrs 930 million assembly plant under construction in Madison County, just north of Jackson. <br> <br> The Japanese automaker will produce its first full-size pickup truck, a new minivan and larger sport utility vehicle. <br> <br> Nissan&#39;s employment is expected to reach 4,000 at full production. Mississippi and Nissan officials have said suppliers will invest dlrs 250 million in Mississippi and hire another 2,000 people. <br> <br> Kasai Kogyo, parent company of M-TEK Inc., is a tier-one supplier that&#39;s building a 219,000-square-foot plant in Madison County. M-TEK will provide interior trim components to Nissan. <br> <br> Unipres will supply body stampings from a 150,000-square-foot plant in Forest, and Calsonic has chosen Warren County for its parts plant. <br>

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