Commerce Blog
By Sarah Lee, Principal Economic Development Manager, Puget Sound Regional Council
January 30, 2015
Washington State brought in $7 million in IMCP-aligned federal agency funds just months after receiving one of the “manufacturing community” designations from the U.S. Department of Commerce. That’s a pretty shining endorsement of the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) program, right? But the truth is Washington State began reaping the benefits of the program even before we submitted our application. The value of this program is about even more than funding.
Our IMCP application was based on the Washington Aerospace Strategy, already developed by the Governor’s Office of Aerospace and the Washington Aerospace Partnership, so we had a head start. The application process pushed us to dig deeper, to prioritize projects and firm up commitments. We reached out to more stakeholders than we had before, which meant we uncovered great programs and projects and discovered partners we didn’t even know we had.
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Commerce Blog
January 30, 2015
A community can’t attract investment if it doesn’t have a clear sense of what it has to offer to a potential company or industry looking to locate there. That’s why the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has tools to help communities identify assets in their regions that will help to attract private investment: the National Excess Manufacturing Capacity Catalogue (NEXCAP) and the U.S. Cluster Mapping website.
In the United States, there are hundreds of millions of square feet of nonproductive commercial, industrial, and manufacturing space. This space provides an opportunity for domestic companies to find manufacturing spaces as well as foreign companies looking to locate operations in the United States. However, information about this space can be incomplete and scattered. That’s where NEXCAP comes in.
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Commerce Blog
January 29, 2015
Today, the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the next round of competition for designation as a “Manufacturing Community” under the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative. IMCP is designed to revolutionize the way federal agencies leverage economic development funds. It encourages communities to develop comprehensive economic development strategies that will strengthen their competitive edge for attracting global manufacturer and supply chain investments. Through IMCP, the federal government is rewarding best practices – coordinating federal aid to support communities’ strong development plans and synchronizing grant programs across multiple departments and agencies.
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Commerce Blog
By Emilia Istrate, PhD, Director of Research and Outreach, National Association of Counties
January 27, 2015
County economies are the building blocks of regional economies (metropolitan areas and micropolitan areas), states and the nation. County governments ensure the functioning of these fundamental units of the U.S. economy by building and maintaining basic infrastructure assets, keeping communities healthy and safe and providing the social safety net for those in need. Counties invest almost $500 billion annually in the services provided to their residents and local communities.
To better understand the dynamics within each county economy, the National Association of Counties (NACo) released earlier this month the 2014 County Economic Tracker: Progress through Adversity, an analysis of the recovery patterns across the 3,069 county economies in 2014. The conditions of a county economy can constrain and challenge county governments, residents and businesses, while also providing opportunities.
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Commerce Blog
By Jay Williams, Assistant Secretary for Economic Development
January 15, 2015
We all face frustrations and challenges in our daily lives. Most of us are fortunate that our biggest complaint is often a bad day at our office job, the perils of DC traffic, or the fact that our DVR didn’t record the end of the game. It’s become a bit of a joke on social media with the advent of #FirstWorldProblems. Yet, there are many people living in the “First World” whose problems are much bigger than we realize.
Many young men of color in this country live in poverty. In fact, minority children are 6 to 9 times more likely to be raised in areas of concentrated poverty. For most living below the poverty line, this gap in wealth creates a gap in opportunities that only grows as these children enter adulthood. I was privileged to have been afforded many opportunities growing up in a middle class household, but I know many of the other young black men of Youngstown, my hometown, were not so fortunate. That's why the President's efforts to address this issue are so personal to me.
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January 2015 Newsletter
Submitting a grant application to EDA? Toying with the idea of applying for funding at some point? There are some important changes to our processes that you need to know.
You may remember that EDA had requested comments a while back on ways to improve its regulations. Our stakeholders submitted 170 comments which shaped a proposed rule. EDA considered all of the feedback in developing the final rule, which appeared in the Federal Register on December 19, 2014. The new regulations will take effect on January 20, 2015. The final rule clarifies EDA’s policies and definitions, streamlines regulations, and facilitates coordination among federal investment opportunities.
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January 2015 Newsletter
By Julie Goonewardene, Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Strategic Investment, Diaceutics Chairwoman, AMA Board, MBI Board
Last year, I was honored to be appointed as an advisor to Secretary Pritzker as part of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). NACIE is emblematic of all the entrepreneurs, educators, philanthropists, and innovators in all sectors of the economy who are working to ensure that our country remains a place of opportunity, innovation and entrepreneurship for generations to come. In December 2014 Secretary Pritzker convened the first meeting of the 27-member NACIE. My NACIE colleagues impress me. We are a diverse group, and I was excited to hear from my fellow council members as they brought their experiences to bear as we began discussing the issues. I can’t think of a better group to address the challenges of creating an innovation economy.
As the current NACIE we are charged with bringing our ideas, and networks together to identify and recommend policies, programs, and partnerships that can help American businesses, individuals, and communities become even more competitive in the global marketplace.
Economic development is hard. It demands years of sustained effort that transcends political movements, market cycles, demographic changes, and geopolitical shifts. It also requires people from all sectors of the economic ecosystem to analyze and understand what is working, to offer alternatives where improvement is needed, and to reach consensus around policies and investments that support paths to prosperity for all Americans.
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January 2015 Newsletter
In 2008, flooding devastated the City of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Heavy rain, winds, and several tornadoes had caused lakes, rivers, and creeks to overflow, literally washing away homes and businesses. The manufacturing sector was particularly affected, which contributed to a rise in unemployment. The entire state of Wisconsin was declared a disaster area in June of that year, and the long task of rebuilding began with help from several federal and local agencies. As things were slowly put back together, the City of Wauwatosa and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Real Estate Foundation, Inc. opted to think about the long-term resiliency of the region’s economy and began working on a plan.
In 2010, the two organizations received an EDA grant for $5.4 million to construct a LEED silver certified industry accelerator facility with world class laboratories. The facilities funded by the EDA grant were part of an innovation campus that the city and University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (UWM) created to nurture advanced manufacturing businesses. This blend of higher education with business initiatives minimizes technology transfer difficulties and helps the region’s pillar sector of manufacturing recover from the floods of 2008 and the subsequent rise in unemployment. The Innovation Campus already credits over 325 jobs and $15 million in private investment to the development of the Accelerator project.
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January 2015 Newsletter
The New Year is always a time of great promise – and it’s no different at EDA. This year, EDA will celebrate its 50th anniversary. For 50 years EDA has been helping communities across the nation strengthen and grow their economies. While we look back to commemorate our history and community impact, we are also excited to look to the future. In 2015, we will continue our work across agencies that foster regional collaboration, like IMCP. We will continue to support small businesses and entrepreneurs through the Regional Innovation Strategies programs, and we will help communities plan, build, or rebuild in order to be more resilient and competitive in the global economy. Thank you to all of our stakeholders and community partners for their instrumental work in helping to create sustainable economic growth and opportunity for the communities we serve.
Thank you for your continued support. Happy New Year! Let’s make 2015 a great year together.
Jay
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NACo County Solutions and Innovation Blog
January 8, 2015
The National Association of Counties and the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation are pleased to announce a new opportunity for counties and regions experiencing economic challenges due to the contraction of the coal industry. Throughout 2015, NACo and NADO Research Foundation will host three intensive, hands-on workshops designed to boost the innovative potential of coal-reliant counties and regions seeking to grow and diversify their economies.
Counties and regions are asked to form teams to apply to enter the program, and teams that submit winning applications will be selected to attend a training workshop facilitated by expert practitioners. These workshops will be structured to guide counties and regions to design solutions tailored to their communities’ needs and identify implementable projects.
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Commerce Blog
By Secretary Penny Pritzker
January 8, 2015
In my first year as Secretary, one of my proudest moments was welcoming international investors to the 2013 SelectUSA Investment Summit. Alongside President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, we made it clear that America is “Open for Business.”
As 2015 begins, we are moving full speed ahead with registration for the second SelectUSA Investment Summit, which will take place in the DC metro area on March 23-24, 2015.
In November, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released new data showing why efforts to attract international investment are so important. U.S. affiliates of foreign firms employed 5.8 million people in the United States in 2012. These companies spent $48 billion on U.S. research and development, and they exported nearly $344 billion worth of goods manufactured in the United States. In 2013, the United States attracted $231 billion in FDI, up from $170 billion in 2012.
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