Whether pursuing an auto manufacturer or touting tax rates, state legislators often compare North Carolina with South Carolina.

But in the accompanying video excerpt from a forum Higher Education Works co-hosted with the Harvard Club of the Research Triangle, Sen. Josh Stein, D-Wake, says North Carolina is competing not just with South Carolina, but with manufacturing locales around the globe.

North Carolina must make investments in higher education to dependably produce the human capital that multinational companies demand if it is to win that competition, Stein says.