When Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro unveiled the Commonwealth’s first economic development strategy in nearly two decades, the Chester County Economic Development Council (CCEDC) was among those invited to attend. We had been part of several focus groups that provided input while the strategy was being developed, and we were anxious to see the final vision for how “Pennsylvania gets it done.”

Overall, we are thrilled to see that economic development is finally a priority in Pennsylvania! Investing in our workforce, our entrepreneurs, our communities, our students and our sites is more important now than ever before. The strategy has a statewide focus, so not all the concepts and themes are relevant to Chester County and Southeastern PA. However, there are a number of priorities mentioned that have us excited.

Here are a few examples:

Priority Industries

The five priority industry sectors outlined in the strategy are completely aligned with industry partnerships (life sciences, manufacturing, technology, agriculture and energy) that the Chester County Economic Development Council has developed and managed for more than 20 years.

Focus on Disadvantaged Businesses

The strategy makes clear that disadvantaged businesses will continue to receive strong support. This aligns well with the Chester County Economic Development Council’s strategic focus over the last 3 years. We are deeply committed to serving disadvantaged businesses as evidenced by the launch of our Business Resource Center in Coatesville, our New Business Champions program that provides free professional services to growing small businesses, and the capitalization of the Pennsylvania Catalyst Loan Fund, which provides much-needed funding to borrowers who have struggled to access credit in the past.

Regionalism

CCEDC is “all in” on this concept and we are already involved in meaningful forums with regional leaders to have honest conversations about how we can collaborate more effectively as a region. Of course, there are plenty of examples of how we have already successfully collaborated. We can point to many CCEDC programs such as the PA Catalyst Loan Fund, our SBA lending arm (Seedcopa) and our many workforce development and industry partnership programs. 

But these recent regional conversations go even further and ask collaborators to look at the Southeastern PA region as a whole, not “Philadelphia and the rest of us.” We have great respect and gratitude for our partners in Philadelphia but know that Southeastern PA’s best chance to be a global leader requires us to present ourselves as one cohesive region.

Site Development

The largest priority for PA’s enhanced focus on economic development is clearly site development. A $500 million bond issuance to fund a program called PA Sites was proposed in the Governor’s budget. We applaud a more aggressive and dynamic posture in competing for corporate investment and will certainly be aggressive in our pursuit of these funds to support key local sites. However, our focus at CCEDC has always been about growing the natural resources in our community.

Those natural resources are the businesses that already call Chester County home and the people — the human capital that builds a thriving workforce. CCEDC has practiced this for decades, building career development programs long before the workforce crisis came to a tipping point during and after the pandemic. It is extremely promising that the Governor “wants to double down on workforce development” programs. Workforce development is economic development.

Furthermore, we are encouraged by the mention of increased funding for agricultural programs and the announcement of a new program called “PA Innovation.” CCEDC’s AgConnect and i2n initiatives are poised to leverage those new proposed funding sources to continue the good work these programs are already doing.

We will pay close attention to the budget discourse that will occur over the next several months. Even the best crystal ball can’t predict which new programs will make it through the state budget process to become a reality, but we can predict that CCEDC will be ready to implement whatever tools are available to us.

Learn more at Chester County Economic Development Council.