By Dustin Walsh originally for Crain’s Detroit Business

The U.S. auto sector is flocking south, lured away from the Motor City by enterprising industry groups in Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. But a new initiative by the Detroit Regional Chamber launching this week is set on rebuilding Michigan’s automotive future.

MichAuto will serve as a statewide association designed to establish an automotive-centric economic development and advocacy platform, said Sandy Baruah, the chamber’s president and CEO.

“There’s no question we’ve lost out to states like Tennessee and Alabama,” he said. “They have been out there proactively recruiting businesses to their state on the auto platform they’ve built over the past 25 years while we’ve ignored ours. We’ve been afraid to tout our industry in the international marketplace in fears of seeming too myopic, but that must change.”