Dr. Yakov Kogan, executive vice president of Cleveland BioLabs, gives a presentation about his company during the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise annual meeting at the Buffalo Life Sciences Complex on Wednesday morning.

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise will focus on marketing the region to businesses, as it was originally conceived, while other economic development agencies work more on helping existing companies stay and expand.

"The whole marketing part of it, we can beef up," said Tom Kucharski, president and chief executive officer of BNE. The group outlined its strategy and reviewed last year?s results at its annual meeting on Wednesday.

BNE over the past year researched industry sectors it will target for new jobs and investment, primarily life sciences, agribusiness and back-office operations, Kucharski said. It also worked with commercial real estate professionals to create an online commercial listings service, to showcase available properties in the region in a centralized way.

With those resources lined up, BNE felt the time was right to devote more attention to promoting the region to business prospects, as it was formed to do eight years ago, Kucharski said. In recent years, BNE has also become more involved in working with existing companies on keeping them here or helping them grow.

BNE will still assist with business retentions and expansions as necessary, but Kucharski said other agencies and organizations are well equipped to manage more of that work. He noted that Empire State Development Corp., the state?s economic development arm, has opened an office in Buffalo as part of an effort to bolster the upstate economy. He also sees industrial development agencies, chambers of commerce and government agencies taking a more active role in working with existing companies.

As the group pumps up its marketing, BNE representatives will take more trips to visit high-level executives to make a pitch for the Buffalo area, Kucharski said.

Canada is a major target. BNE has developed a list of 600 companies it will reach out to in its recruitment push. That strategy has received a boost from a strengthened Canadian dollar, which makes the United States a more attractive place for Canadian companies to invest, Kucharski said.

For 2006-07, the BNE reported 21 project "wins," defined as a commitment by a BNE client company to invest in new or expanded business operations. Those 21 projects are worth more than $1.8 billion in private sector investment and 1,052 new jobs and 1,337 retained jobs.

One announced project, HSBC Bank USA?s data center in Niagara County, accounted for $1.7 billion of the new investment. The project with the most announced new jobs was Citicorp.?s in CrossPoint Business Park in Amherst, with 500.

BNE highlighted an additional 11 "partner wins," projects that the group helped with but didn?t serve as the primary agency in working with the company. Those 11 projects generated $452 million in investment and 2,941 created and retained jobs. Time Warner Cable and Ford Motor Co. projects accounted for the bulk of the investment and job figures.

This was the first year that BNE distinguished between projects it managed and those it provided some assistance to as a partner. In the previous year, BNE reported a total of 38 "wins," compared to the 2006-07 combined total of 32 wins. The total number of retained and created jobs in 2006-07 was up 55 percent from the year before, and the investment figure rose dramatically, thanks to the HSBC project.

BNE welcomed a new board chairman, David Smith, chief operating officer and president of National Fuel Gas. He succeeds Randall Clark, chairman of Dunn Tire, who had served in the role for six years.

These are the 21 project "wins" that BNE claims for 2006-07:

? Astronics Corp.: 100 jobs created, 285 retained, $7.5 million investment.

? F.P. Pla Tool and Manufacturing: 5 jobs created, 32 retained, $3 million investment.

? Moldtech: 40 jobs created, 45 retained, $3.5 million investment.

? Multisorb Technologies: 95 jobs created, $8.5 million investment.

? Noble International: 29 jobs created, $450,000 investment.

? Pfannenberg: 25 jobs created, 24 retained, $2.4 million investment.

? Kainos: 20 jobs created, 45 retained, $6 million investment.

? Citicorp: 500 jobs created, 600 retained, $45 million investment.

? HSBC Bank USA: 78 jobs created, 108 retained, $1.8 billion investment.

? Cleveland BioLabs: 70 jobs created, $6.2 million investment.

? Nurticyte: 3 jobs created.

? PharmIdeas: 10 jobs created.

? Zeptometrix: 10 jobs created, 20 retained, $500,000 investment.

? Hanes Supply: 5 jobs created, 55 jobs retained, $200,000 investment.

? Regatta Sport: 2 jobs created, $250,000 investment.

? Sherex Industries: 29 jobs created, 30 retained, $1.6 million investment.

? Simply Audiobooks: 6 jobs created, $275,000 investment.

? Tech Span: 2 jobs created, $150,000 investment.

? Videon Digital Technologies: 5 jobs created, $150,000 investment.

? Lancaster Tank and Steel: 3 jobs created, 13 retained, $600,000 investment.

? Roberts-Gordon: 15 jobs created, 80 retained, $16 million investment.

mglynn@buffnews.com