TAHLEQUAH — It takes more than the promise of a great place to live and the availability of a good workforce to lure industry to an area today, an economic development expert said here Tuesday.

Bill Millett, president of Scope View Strategic Advantage of Charlottesville, N.C., said promising workers and quality of life are what everyone says in trying to lure industry today.

What they have to offer is solid proof that their area offers something more and better than what everyone else has.

Industries today aren’t just looking at a city or a county or even a region for potential sites for relocation or expansion, he said.

“It’s not just northeastern Oklahoma against the rest of Oklahoma or the southwest or the United States,” Millett said. “It’s literally you against the rest of the world.”

American communities are lagging behind in that picture as global competition becomes keener, especially with the brightest students coming out of school systems in other countries, Millett said.

One of Oklahoma’s best selling points is that the state leads the nation in the percentage of 4-year-olds in pre-kindergarten classes, he said.

That is important because education needs to begin early and continue through high school, college and a lifetime, he said.

While Oklahoma can brag about its preschool education, the percentage of high school dropouts — about 25 percent in Muskogee County — and the percentage of residents with college degrees — about 15.4 percent in Muskogee County — do not speak well of the area to prospective industry, Millett said.

While U.S. education continues to offer rote memorization of facts, other countries are challenging their students to learn creative thinking, which will give their workforce an advantage in the future.

The U.S. population today is only 6 percent of the world population. If you take 25 percent of the smartest population of India and China, that’s more smart people than there are in all of the U.S., Millett said.

Millett compared the nation’s approach to education of its young people today to being like someone playing checkers while the people next to them are playing chess, which requires more critical thinking and more strategy.

If the nation doesn’t gather its resources and focus on competing with the rest of the world, the United States could become a nation of consumers — consumers of products produced in other countries, Millett said.

The summit continued through the day with groups listing the area’s resources and assets. Millett also encouraged them to list their liabilities.

“Corporations are great at sniffing out the bad stuff, you can’t hide it,” he said.