N.C. Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker spoke to the House Commerce Committee on May 29 and presented a detailed plan for the new public-private partnership that will assume the leadership and accountability for North Carolina’s economic development initiatives. House Bill 630 is the enabling legislation for the creation of the partnership.
The objective of the N.C. Economic Development Partnership is to be more nimble and proactive, and able to leverage private funds with public dollars, move at the speed of business and more successfully focus on economic growth in all 100 counties of North Carolina both in support of existing business growth and new business development.
The NCEDP is forming to provide for a more comprehensive and focused approach to economic development.
“We have spent billions of dollars on economic initiatives,” said Decker. “However, our efforts have lacked strategic focus, resulting in little positive movement in economic outcomes and results, specifically net job growth. Too many of our counties still remain in double digit unemployment.”
The intention is to create one economic development organization with distributed resources throughout the state. The current Commerce functions of Business & Industry, International Trade, Marketing, Tourism, Film and Sports, and some aspects of Research and Analysis will be brought into the NCEDP. The remaining functions in Commerce will remain on the public side of the organization.
It’s anticipated that full implementation of this new organization will take up to a year, with the process beginning in next month.
More details released on N.C. Commerce retooling (The Daily Reflector – Greenville, May 29)