Economic development means different things to different people. This section answers some questions often asked about economic development.
What is economic development?
Economic development usually takes three forms:
- Business attraction
- Business retention and expansion
- Business creation
All three initiatives aim to create new primary jobs that pay more than the prevailing wage, increase the amount of income coming into the community from outside its market area, and create greater capital investment in the community. The strategy is to achieve this in a number of diversified industries.
TREO’s role within the Tucson region is to synergize and coordinate all economic development activities and programs under one umbrella. This mission is critical to reduce duplication of efforts and to prioritize limited resources.
To assist in that role, TREO collaborated with many key community stakeholders and developed an Economic Blueprint to act as a guide in the development of a competitive global economy. Within the Blueprint framework, TREO is focused on the following:
- Create opportunities that will give a greater number of people better access to wealth through economic growth.
- Increase the tax base of governments/communities in order to provide higher quality services to citizens.
- Diversify the economic base, thereby cushioning the community against economic shocks.
In the Tucson region, TREO focuses on business attraction, expansion and company formation as methods to create wealth. The region’s various Chambers of Commerce and a network of other service providers focus their efforts on business support services, workforce assistance, training, networking, educational programs, and advocacy. For a list of Community Resources, click here