The sale of local manufacturing giant Gillette to Ohio-based Procter & Gamble has sent more tremors through the local economy.

Industry has seemingly been on the wane in New England since just after World War II when the textile mills began leaving for warmer and less-union-friendly parts south. Today the threat is even farther afield — places like China and India — where cheap labor and a much looser regulatory environment beckon.

But as some recent developments make clear, Bay State officials aren't about to give up on the manufacturing sector. And there's evidence that a bipartisan approach along with an infusion of state cash and credit, can convince companies to stay and grow here. Some reasons for our optimism:

• Last Wednesday, Senate President Robert Travaglini, D-Boston, and his majority leader, Frederick E. Berry, D-Peabody, were at the Cummings Center in Beverly to accept repayment from Microline, Inc. of a $3.8 million loan the state had granted it for the expansion of its business.

Founded in 1987 by two friends who came to the North Shore from France, Microline has expanded from a five-person operation located in a Middleton loft, to a company that today has 141 employees and $15 million in annual revenues. It produces a line of high-quality scissors and forceps with disposable blades used in laparoscopic surgery in quarters at the former United Shoe Manufacturing Corp. which the Cummings Corp. of Woburn has transformed into a bustling, high-tech business complex.

Microline president Hughes de Laforcade said the company's growth would not have been possible without the low-cost financing it received from the state's Community Development Finance Corp. (Also benefiting from the transaction, was the Salem Harbor Community Development Corp., which, being located in a joint Salem-Beverly economic revitalization zone, was able to serve as "sponsor" for the loan and received a check for almost $300,000 that will go towards the job creation and housing programs it operates in Salem's Point neighborhood.)

In his brief remarks, Travaglini commented on the Gillette sale and attendant concerns about job losses in Massachusetts, noting that specialized businesses like Microline represent the future of the Bay State's manufacturing economy.

He made reference too to his visit to Tewksbury last October to announce a $2 million loan from another state program, the Emerging Technology Fund, that allowed Acusphere, Inc. to purchase and expand a former pharmaceutical plant in that Merrimack Valley town for the manufacture of a promising new drug used in the detection of heart disease.

The creation of these programs show what Republican governors and the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate can accomplish when they put aside their differences on other issues to work on effective growth strategies for the commonwealth.

• And speaking of bipartisanship, Friday saw Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Lowell, gather with legislative leaders at the Statehouse to celebrate the passage of a $242-million bond bill passed earlier in the week to allow for the expansion of activity at Hanscom Air Force Base.

The military facility that develops high-tech weaponry for the Air Force and other branches of the service, is a major generator of jobs and economic activity for both the North of Boston region and southern New Hampshire. State officials are hoping this commitment by the state will help keep Hanscom off the list of military bases slated for closure that will be submitted to Congress this spring.

• While many industries like textile manufacturing and shoemaking are only a vestige of their former selves in Massachusetts, defense spending remains a major component of the Bay State economy.

Two recent announcements of note were the Navy's award of a $112-million contract to Raytheon, which employs 3,600 people at its Andover facilities and another 1,850 in its Tewksbury plant, to upgrade the automated air defense systems on three of its destroyers; and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's award of a $25-million contract for information technology services to Andover-based Dynamics Research Corp.

• Late last month, Gloucester-based Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. announced a 45 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenues from a year earlier. Business is booming at the plant in the Blackburn Industrial Park, and the manufacturer of equipment used to make computer chips has replaced the fishing industry as the city's largest employer and exporter.

Indeed, while many bemoan the amount of product the U.S. imports from overseas, 10 percent of Varian's sales are to a couple of chip makers in Asia, according to CFO Robert Halliday.

• Finally last week there was the announcement of a new partnership between the state and Citizens Bank that will allow Massachusetts businesses to borrow money for expansion at a fixed rate of 3.5 percent — providing there is one job created for every $40,000 borrowed. The program is expected to bring 2,500 jobs to Massachusetts over the next several years.