As many of you reading this know, I’m what you would call a Tex-Can. I was born and raised in Canada, but I’ve called Texas home for nearly 30 years. I can’t picture U.S. Global Investors headquartered anywhere else, even after traveling to all parts of the country and, indeed, the world. Texas just “gets it,” which is why CNBC recently named the $1.6 trillion economy the best state for business in 2018—the first time, in fact, a state has won four separate times since the network began ranking them 12 years ago.

Below are six reasons why I think Texas trumps all other U.S. economies.

1. Texas is a manufacturing powerhouse

Everything’s bigger in Texas, and that includes manufacturing. Last year, total manufacturing output from the Lone Star State was $226.16 billion, or about 10 percent of total U.S. manufacturing goods, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The industry supports more than 865,000 jobs in Texas, or about 7.1 percent of its workforce. And the average annual compensation for manufacturing was $82,544, compared to $46,642 for all nonfarm jobs, which helps boost the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). Finally, at a time when global manufacturing expansion is slowing, the sector in Texas continues to grow at a healthy pace.

2. Texas is the largest exporting state

Texas is also known as the top exporting state in the nation, responsible for almost 20 percent of total U.S. exports. And they continue to grow at an impressive rate. According to the Dallas Fed, Texas exports rose sharply in July and were up 16 percent year-to-date, or about three times faster than U.S. exports, which increased 5.2 percent for the same period. Much of the growth in the Lone Star State is due to its monster oil and gas industry, which exported more crude than it imported for the first time ever in April, according to an August report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).