NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford warned Monday there is no magic bullet that will solve the challenges facing the state's rural areas, but urged rural leaders to play to their strengths.

"There is no savior" from the outside, Mr. Sanford told about 300 people attending the South Carolina Rural Summit.

"We can look to the federal government, but they will not save rural South Carolina," Mr. Sanford told the local leaders and development officials.

"We can look at the state government and the state government certainly ought to be helpful ...but at the end of the day rural South Carolina will help rural South Carolina," he added.

"It's going to be a lot of important little steps," Mr. Sanford added, noting that last year, 44 percent of the new jobs created in the state were created in rural areas.

He thanked officials for their efforts but also said the state is increasingly competing in a global economy where jobs can be moved overnight.

Mr. Sanford said 30 percent of the jobs announced in the state in the 1990s are no longer here. He mentioned the Mack truck plant in Fairfield County as an example. Announced with much fanfare and lured by a $20 million incentive package in 1986, the plant closed five years ago costing 760 jobs.

Mr. Sanford suggested broadband Internet access is needed in rural areas to link them to the global economy.

"We've got to think of infrastructure not just in terms of roads and sewers and water - which are very, very important - but we've also got to think about it in terms of information itself," he said.