The NRVRC is in the process of updating the New River Valley Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) document for 2020. The CEDS provides a review of economic data and conditions for NRVRC jurisdictions, identifies goals and strategies that help to address these regional issues, and prioritizes regional economic development projects that the region can undertake to achieve these goals. The CEDS documents from previous years are available on our website: https://nrvrc.org/services/economy .
A key step in updating the CEDS each year is to reconvene the CEDS committee, a group of 25+ volunteers who represent organizations around the New River Valley. These experts serve as the ‘think tank’ for the CEDS, providing ideas, guidance, and a critical eye to help NRVRC staff ensure the CEDS captures the most important economic development issues in the New River Valley. This year’s committee represents a variety of fields and expertise, including finance, international trade, small business development and entrepreneurship, educational institutions (both K-12 and higher ed), technology, workforce development, and local government, among others. The committee has a broad understanding of the regional economy and a deep knowledge of specific issues that contribute to the region’s economic health.
The CEDS committee will meet several times this spring in order to provide input on the CEDS update process. A major focus for the group this year is to review CEDS content and data dashboards as the NRVRC prepares to migrate CEDS content from a paper report format to a more online and user-friendly source of regional economic development information. The CEDS committee met in February to discuss recent trends in economic development that will impact this year’s CEDS update and will meet again in April, May, and June.
For more information on the NRV CEDS update process, please contact Patrick O’Brien: pobrien@nrvrc.org, 540-639-9313 x206