"This is a summary of many indicators, and North Carolina ranked well on some and not so well on others," Dr. Walden says. "For example, we ranked high on the number of information tech jobs, foreign investments, venture capital and industry investment as well as on the availability of high speed Internet.

"But we ranked low on high value manufacturing, patents and risk taking and the percentage of the population that regularly uses the Internet," he adds. "So you could say that North Carolina has one foot in the new economy and another foot, the other foot, in the old economy.

"But both of these feet, however, are in different regions. So I think this report indicates, given that are right in the middle there, 26th, that we are making progress, we can make more progress. And if you look behind the numbers, I think what you see is there are really two North Carolina's: one that's in the new economy, and one that's still in the old economy."