NEW BERLIN – The manufacturing marketplace is getting a boost from United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who paid a visit to Golden Artist Colors in New Berlin on Friday to advocate for her “Made in America Manufacturing Act” to strengthen New York’s manufacturing sector.

Gillibrand’s bill in Congress suggests that federal funding be awarded to manufacturers through a competitive process that awards low interest loans to employers. Such a process encourages states and regional public-private partnerships to plan and implement strategies that prompt growth for manufacturing industries, especially in the fields of clean and high-tech manufacturing, she said.

“We want companies like this to be able to grow,” she told a crowd of Golden Artist employees who gathered on the production floor. An ailing economy has crippled manufacturing in recent years, with more than 123,000 manufacturing jobs lost since 2005, an estimated 170 of those jobs from Chenango County between 2005 and 2010, she added. “Manufacturing has been the hardest hit.”

But while manufacturing on whole has been dealt a devastating blow, computer manufacturing in the Southern Tier increased by nearly 12 percent from 2004 to 2008, spurring high-tech manufacturing growth in the region.