Wichita ? Kansas’ central location, recruitment efforts by its Department of Commerce and other factors are attracting Canadian businesses to the Sunflower State.

Six Canadian companies have opened facilities in Kansas in the past five years, the majority within the past 12 months.

Most were lured by the state’s central location and proximity to their expanding U.S. business. But the state Department of Commerce also has launched aggressive recruiting efforts.

Calgary-based International Utility Structures opened a pole manufacturing plant last year in El Dorado. NMF Global of Mirabel, Quebec, opened a plant — NMF America — to form aircraft wings in 2001 in northeast Wichita. And last year Matcor Metal Fabrication moved steel parts production from Toronto to southeast Kansas.

“Kansas was the right spot for us,” Robert Jack, International Utility Structures’ top executive, told The Wichita Eagle.

About 90 companies in Kansas employing about 34,000 workers are owned by investors or companies outside the United States, Watson said.

The Department of Commerce has seen “pretty consistent interest” from Canada over the years — maybe a little bit more recently, said John Watson, the agency’s director of trade development.

“They’re interested in developing the market by having a more centrally located manufacturing source,” Watson said.

The ease in transporting across the country, proximity to interstates such as Interstate 35, and a business-friendly environment make Kansas attractive, said Laura Aune, business development director for the Canadian consulate general in Dallas.

Aune said the North America Free Trade Agreement played in the companies’ decision to come to Kansas.