RIEDC 2008 Economic Growth Plan: Creating Higher Wage Job Opportunities for All Rhode Islanders
February 26, 2008 | Print this page | Share This | Email this page
Over the last few decades Rhode Island's economy has changed in fundamental ways. Like the rest of the nation, our economy has shifted away from a reliance on machinery and equipment to "knowledge workers" who generate ideas and information. We must now compete in an economy where innovation and knowledge are the primary drivers of economic growth. Though daunting, the transition to a new global innovation economy offers Rhode Island an opportunity to achieve greater prosperity now and in the years to come.
RIEDC's 2008 Economic Growth Plan describes our strategy to promote growth, create jobs and accelerate Rhode Island's economic transformation. RIEDC has completed a comprehensive review of its activities and aligned its efforts to the vision, goals and strategies of this Economic Growth Plan. Central to this repositioning are ongoing efforts to modernize the agency's programs to reflect the current needs of Rhode Island companies and better support companies well positioned to create higher wage innovation economy jobs.
RIEDC's Economic Growth Plan consists of six strategies for providing higher wage job opportunities to all Rhode Islanders:
- Increase the number of high-wage jobs in target sectors.
- Increase the availability of growth capital to Rhode Island businesses.
- Increase the availability of office and commercial space.
- Increase the skills and experience of the Rhode Island workforce.
- Increase research activity and new company creation.
- Decrease the tax and regulatory burden facing Rhode Island businesses.
Top priority activities include new programs to increase the availability of growth capital to businesses, a regional attraction campaign to promote new company relocation and expansion, a partnership to leverage property made available through the I-195 relocation, improvements to the state's expedited permitting program, two programs that strengthen our state's workforce development platform, an effort to increase the state's research and development capacity and stimulate more new company creation and a program to reduce the regulatory burden faced by the state's small businesses.
Download a copy of the RIEDC 2008 Economic Growth Plan
