Regional Economic Development

In addition to the new funding, the state’s tourism promotion effort is being bolstered by cooperation. "We’ve never seen the industry so united as they are now," said Nan Anderson, executive director of the Utah Tourism Industry Coalition.

Arizona’s investment and technology communities are the anticipated winners from the state legislature’s recent passage of a tax credit encouraging angel capital investments in start-up Arizona tech firms.

Rather than viewing rural America as synonymous with “agriculture,” it is
important to delve into the modern components of the rural economy.

These “university towns” also attract a tremendous amount of research and development money every year to fund projects in science and engineering, among other disciplines. While much of this research doesn’t turn out to have any commercial application, at least in the short term, some of it does, thereby spawning the type of companies that will drive our economy well into the future.

Of the first $100 million to be allocated, $50 million will be reserved until Dec. 31 for five states (Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota), with each receiving $10 million. Any funds to those five states beyond the $10 million will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire last week signed a bill creating the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (see the Feb. 7 http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2005/020705.htm#Washington issue of the Digest). The fund will support life sciences research using $350 million in…

A new Web site featuring 5,000 pages of information, much of it designed for entrepreneurs, will be unveiled today. “If you don’t have the information, you’re out of the hunt,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where the businesses are. They can find us anywhere.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produced a new tool, the “Location Quotient Calculator.” A location quotient identifies industry clusters by comparing whether a given industry represents a larger or smaller proportion of the…

Businesses and elected leaders must get involved in making economic clusters work to raise residents’ income faster than other states, S.C. leaders said Friday during the annual Growth Summit.

"Our fear," she added, "is that when you talk to employers out there, they say they are not getting the skills they need," in part because "the colleges are not getting students with the skills they need.‘‘