Last month the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) unveiled its new 2017-2020 Strategic Plan, which included 22 specific initiatives to help the organization continue advancing the region’s economic growth and job creation.

Over the past month, we’ve been highlighting each of those initiatives, which fall into one of four categories: recruitment; marketing & communications; retention, resources, and regional strategies; and advocacy and leadership.

This week, we will highlight the four new advocacy and leadership initiatives, which will help LVEDC continue to serve as the region’s economic connector and working with all of our regional partners to find solutions and grow the Lehigh Valley economy.

Click here to download the LVEDC Strategic Plan 2017-2020.

The initiatives include:

1) Take a leadership role as an advocate to local and state partners and stakeholders for new initiatives or policy changes would improve the Lehigh Valley’s competitiveness and opportunity for economic growth and job creation.

2) Engage a coalition of developers and economic development entities using data, awareness and investment to address the shortage of real estate to support manufacturing growth, helping to correct the disconnect between desired growth and market availability.

3) Continue to engage county and municipal leaders on local development priorities, marketing support, financing programs and information sharing through website connections and enhancements, and communication vehicles.

4) Facilitate a dialogue in an effort to streamline and consolidate the region’s government and service delivery functions to eliminate waste and redundancy and to improve competitiveness with other states and regions.

These initiatives were identified as a result of several consultant studies commissioned by LVEDC to ensure the organization’s strategies are focused on the highest-quality growth and job creation possible for the Lehigh Valley.

Those studies included an economic development analysis by the Atlanta-based Garner Economics; the by New-York based Development Counsellors International; and the global firm Investment Consulting Associates.