The Regional Commission is in the process of updating the New River Valley Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) document for 2018. The CEDS provides a review of economic data and conditions for Regional Commission jurisdictions, identifies goals and strategies that help to addresses 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/what-we-do/economic-development/comprehensive-economic-development-strategy/.
A key step in updating the CEDS each year is to reconvene the CEDS committee, also known as the CEDS think tank, a group of 25 volunteers who represent organizations around the New River Valley. The diverse committee has a broad understanding of the regional economy, and a deep knowledge of specific issues that contribute to the region’s economic health. This year’s committee contains representatives with a variety of 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 CEDS committee will meet several times this spring in order to provide input on the CEDS update process, such as updating the ranking and prioritization of economic development projects, and reviewing progress on the ‘data dashboard’ that helps the region to track indicators of economic health and development. A major focus for the group this year is to review CEDS content in light of a new requirement to include a discussion of ‘economic resilience’ in the CEDS, outlining the region’s ability to react to changing global or national economic conditions, or address threats to the regional economy such as a natural disaster or a downturn in the region’s key industry sectors.
For further information, please contact Patrick O’Brien:(pobrien@nrvrc.org), 540-639-9313 x 206.