Regional Economic Development

The rate of patent growth is almost one-quarter higher than the national rate. Technology employment is within one percent of the national average, and federally performed R&D in the south nearly doubled the national rate in the last three decades

On Tuesday, Lance Morgan, chief executive of Ho-Chunk Inc. in Winnebago, Neb., will assume a nearly full-time advisory role to the head of the BIA to help reshape bureau policy and economic development.

SBA’s Monthly News Update Regional Administrator Notes: by Mick Ringsak Family-owned business thrives in Rapid City. From time to time I think it would be good to tell you about some of the fantastic SBA…

Using an approach that brings similar businesses together into "clusters" to discuss what their particular industry needs, Zacher and a mob of dedicated volunteers have seen business owners drop their hostility toward competitors and talk opening about their concerns, fears and hopes.

On October 4, 2004, NTIA announced the award of $14.4 million in Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) grants to 27 non-profit organizations, including state, local and tribal governments, in 22 states and the District of Columbia….

The region’s water agencies are proposing a mammoth project to pump groundwater from rural parts of the state, spending millions paying homeowners to tear out their lawns to reduce consumption and praying that the states will work out a deal.

Typically, an IAF-approved company gets a few thousand dollars per job that is created and that pays a certain level above the county median wage where the expansion or relocation occurs. The companies get the money after the jobs are created and must commit to keeping the operations in Utah at least five years.

Historic dependence on resource extraction industries, like mining, oil and gas development
and the wood products industry, are shown to be associated with the slowest long-term growth
rates. Diverse economies, especially those with – dependence on the high-end service industries,
like finance, real estate and business services, grow the fastest.

The EDC, says Eliassen, also is changing the way it recruits employers. Rather than using a shotgun approach, the agency now targets six industry clusters, and is putting its resources into finding willing recruits that fit into them. They include: financial services, advanced manufacturing, logistics (warehousing and distribution), information technology, health and biomedical, and higher education and research and development.

"Dr. Thomas Clark, Kentucky’s foremost historian …, recently said that the central question in assuring a brighter future for Kentucky is the wise investments in preparing its people to be capable and adaptable in a demanding technological age. This calls for wise and courageous leadership to recognize this fact."