Atlanta, For Immediate Release: Intel’s huge computer chip production facilities rank as the world’s “top industrial plants,” noted futurist McKinley Conway says in his new book, Global Super Projects: Mega Ventures That Are Shaping Our Future.

Intel’s landmark chip fabrication plants, however, make up only one element in the host of mega-endeavors that Conway has selected as the most significant in recent history. In addition, the author of several dozen other books has chosen the top projects in 19 other important categories, ranging from environmental and conservation undertakings, to new airports, highways and other infrastructure elements. (To access all of Conway’s selections, as well as the Conway Global Super Projects Registry, look for the online version of the entire book that will be available by Jan. 16, 2006, at www.sitenet.com/books/superprojects. To go directly to the Conway Global Super Projects Registry, go to www.sitenet.com/books/superprojects/registry.)

Conway, a pioneer in the economic development field, made his selections from what he calls “Super Projects, the billion-dollar babies that are changing the face of world development.” A Super Project, he explains, “represents a cost of US$1 billion or more and/or a represents a technological breakthrough of worldwide significance.” Conway’s Atlanta-based research firm, Conway Data Inc., maintains a global Super Project database that now includes some 2,000 ventures.

Just how did Conway, who has studied major global projects for decades and brought together leading Super Project experts in a series of historic worldwide conferences, choose the crème de la crème? The winners, he explains, “were those deemed to be most significant in improving the quality of life for large numbers of the world’s citizens.”

Here, for example, is how the author explained his choice for the world’s top industrial plants:

“Over the years we have collected files on many huge facilities such as steel mills, petroleum refineries, aluminum smelters, and auto manufacturing plants. They continue to be built, but we think the most significant super projects of recent years may be the highly sophisticated and very expensive plants for producing semiconductors, wafers or chips. This is something new!

“Our vote at this time goes to the new computer chip plants – the Intel facility at Rio Rancho, NM, is an outstanding example. Intel has led in building these new units, which cost a billion or so each and employ large numbers of workers at good pay levels. Motorola and IBM have built several and other electronic firms are adding them in the United States, the U.K, and along the Pacific Rim. They are much sought after by economic development agencies.”