Council Outlines Strategy to Strengthen Rhode Island Economy

A Rhode Island Economic Strategy: 10 Ways to Succeed Without Losing Our Soul recently was released by the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council. The report outlines 10 economic development initiatives through four themes centered on places, people, clusters and connections. 



Rhode Island must "strike a balance between collaborating and competing with its neighboring states" if it wishes to remain a center of New Economy activity, according to the report. To do so, the state must secure its share of the Boston Metro's high-wage industries while addressing infrastructure and the region's global competitiveness. 



Some highlights among the report's 10 key strategies: 

• "Create synergy among technology, the arts, and outdoor recreation. Make Providence a new economy job engine for Rhode Island (so that) Boston is a job engine for the Metro. Reinvent Quonset/Davisville as a job engine for industrial parks in other towns, rather than as a competitor with them." 
• "Double the number and increase the diversity of college graduates with the technology skills needed by employers through the creation of a Technology Partnership among Rhode Island's technology businesses and institutions of higher education." 
• "Increase Rhode Island's share of the region's five highest-wage industry clusters through a comprehensive five-part cluster strategy encompassing workforce development, technology commercialization, tax competitiveness improvement, specialized infrastructure development, and targeted recruitment and retention." 
• "Leverage the R&D capacity of Rhode Island's universities and research centers...through the six Slater Centers supported by the Samuel Slater Technology Fund. Enhance venture capital investment, as well as seed financing by angel investors, by complementing the work of the Slater Centers with aggressive promotion and outreach." 

Copies of A Rhode Island Economic Strategy: 10 Ways to Succeed Without Losing Our Soul may be obtained by visiting the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council at: http://www.ripolicy.org/Ten%20Ways.html