Regional Economic Development

Evidence continues to mount that policymakers see the need for programs to benefit rural communities and citizens, but in times of tight state budgets and calls for fiscal restraint, policy-makers wonder if they can afford new programs, projects or initiatives.

"People are having real choices about where they want to live and where they want to do business,"

Doing a video of things to do in your town to air on one of the channels at the local hotels has stirred up a number of emails from towns that are exploring the idea.

Here, in no particular order – except for the first and the last – is my list of 10 basic indicators of a good business climate.

As the WRDC evolves to engage in emerging issues across the West I will highlight those changes in the newsletter. We will also continue to identify potential opportunities for university faculty, tribal college faculty, community colleges and non-profits that will enable them to find resources to fulfill their missions.

The TBED Resource Center is an interactive website providing a wealth of information for practitioners, policymakers, university faculty, and researchers alike. With links to more than 3,400 reports, the website features information in a variety of TBED-critical topics in the U.S. and abroad.

The fact that China is producing far more engineers and scientists than the United States is often cited as a major threat to America’s continued prosperity. The problem is real, but in many ways, it is misunderstood–and by no means is it impossible to solve.

"Attitudes about women in the workplace, period, have changed, let alone women running their own businesses," said Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners. "It just hasn’t quickly enough or as much as we would hope for."

In rural America, as elsewhere, a variety of factors make knowledgebased
growth possible: high-skilled labor, colleges and universities,
vibrant business networks, and infrastructure. Some rural communities
are already leveraging these assets to transform their economy. Many
other rural places, however, have yet to tap this rich economic potential.

A new sewage disposal process called "membrane bio-reactor" technology approved for industry use by the Department of Environmental Quality makes it possible now for developers to build their own sewage systems to fit their specific projects.