Dear Friends -

As 2021 draws to a close, I want to wish you all a safe and joyous holiday season and a very happy New Year. We’re closing the books on another strange and challenging year, but one which gave us many reasons to feel hopeful and proud to be Marylanders.

At the Department of Commerce, we spent much of this year continuing the important work of bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in financial relief to small businesses, restaurants, hotels, artists and arts organizations across the state who were still struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But we never lost focus on our core mission, and our team kept working hard to bring new jobs, new economic growth, and new prosperity to our state.

We welcomed many new businesses and new facilities to Maryland, and helped many home-grown companies with their efforts to expand into new markets and begin exporting their products and services. These wins and more are detailed in Commerce’s Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report .

Maryland as a whole has made great strides in the fights against coronavirus. Thanks to the diligent efforts of our friends and partners across the state, we have one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country, and by early December more than 1 million booster doses had been administered in Maryland.

When we look at these numbers alongside the tens of thousands of new jobs our state has added in recent months, it is clear that Maryland is poised to continue thriving and that 2022 looks very bright indeed.

May the new year bring health, happiness, and prosperity to all Maryland residents and businesses alike.

-Kelly