Eight years into the BNE's ongoing campaign, officials said the effort is narrowing its focus to concentrate on business sectors that hold the most promise for the Buffalo Niagara region and is showing steadily improving results.

But Clark said the state's high taxes, onerous regulations and other expenses that drive up costs for businesses here make it harder to sell the Buffalo Niagara region to executives.

"It isn't the most competitive product," Clark told investors at the BNE's semi-annual update meeting on Thursday. "If the economic environment here were better and more competitive, the hit rate would be even higher."

But just as New York's business climate didn't become uncompetitive in a year or two, Clark said it could take decades to bring the state's business costs into line. As a result, he said marketing efforts like the BNE are essential to point out the quality of life and work force advantages that the region has today.

The BNE, in an effort to become a portal for a wide range of information about the region, has been beefing up its Web site over the last year and is now adding access to a new list of available commercial and industrial properties in the region, said Thomas Kucharski, the organization's president.

The initiative currently is focusing on luring opportunities in agriculture, life sciences, and back office projects, as well as Canadian companies. The BNE, which gets 90 percent of its $3 million annual budget from 67 private-sector investors, took credit for assisting in 19 local projects that brought $2.3 billion in new investment to the region, while creating or retaining 4,600 jobs during the first half of its current fiscal year. Those projects include the back-office expansions recently announced by Citigroup and HSBC North America Holdings, as well as Time Warner Cable's decision to maintain its local operations.

e-mail: drobinson@buffnews.com