I’ve read several exciting things on rural economic development lately, and I wanted to share some examples and some ideas. Three Tips to a Successful InitiativeHillsboro, Kansas, is launching a business incubator with the city and university participating. The mayor pointed out three things she liked in the proposal. Developers have done a thorough job…
Ed Morrison, EDPro Weblog, is still my favorite source for all things economic development. When will school readiness for kindergarten become a vital economic development metric? Read more. In a global economy built on brainpower, how long can we afford to wait? Last week, the Committee for Economic Development released its latest report: The Economic…
New York has passed legislation to try to spur further rural broadband development, as reported Friday in the Utica Observer-Dispatch. Can passing a law really make a difference on broadband investment? The law directs one agency, the Department of Economic Development, to work with other departments, agencies and private companies. Their assignment is to create…
Now here is a strategy for rural development: Hope that one of your small town’s alumni will return and pour money on you. Don’t want to wait? Start looking for alumni to bring back, organize general alumni events, and build relationships with people. At the same time, don’t forget your “never lefts,” the people who…
The government of Jamaica is introducing business incubators to support its entrepreneurs. They are doing things a little differently than US incubators, to meet their own unique needs. Jamaica has large rural regions, but faces a familiar problem of people migrating to the cities for jobs. The government will be inviting entrepreneurs to bid for…
Georgia has plans to develop its rural areas, and the latest initiative is an investment in rural airports. Rural airports are important to business development, tourism, health care, and transportation. Quite a bit of bang for the buck. Announced in Vidalia on Monday, the initiative includes small, rural airports scattered over the entire state, from…
Princeton, Indiana, has set up a low-interest revolving loan program, to make loans of up to $10,000 to downtown businesses. Travis Neff wrote about it in the Princeton Daily Clarion, City hopes to foster downtown progress with loan program.It’s a partnership of the city government and the Umbrella Committee on Downtown Revitalization. The city was…
One of the great economic development columns published today is BOTTOM LINE by Charles Lawton, in the Maine Today business section. Recently, he wrote, Maine doesn’t have a jobs problem; we have a skills problem. He points to the increasing competition for skilled workers. Even in economically depressed areas, certain industries are begging for qualified…
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