Commerce secretary bullish on economic development in 2024
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowComing off a record 2023 for economic development deals in Indiana, Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg says the deal pipeline is robust for 2024.
Last month, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. said the state secured nearly $29 million in new capital investment and nearly 22,000 job commitments.
Rosenberg said the key to that growth is “really being aggressive to go get the economies of the future that we want that drive our state [such as] semiconductors, microelectronics, life science, ag tech. There’s a lot of capital worldwide looking for that domestic production supply chain that can be stable here in the U.S.”
Rosenberg told Inside INdiana Business Host Gerry Dick said the state is hopeful for an even bigger year this year.
Late last month, the IEDC received approval from the State Budget Committee to offer $180 million in incentives for two advanced manufacturing projects with a total value of $7.2 billion and 3,500 job commitments.
Rosenberg said while he’s limited in what he can say, there could be news soon on those deals.
“We feel very strong about one and feel very, very good about another as well,” he said. “And it just underscores the overall business development pipeline that we have in the state. Indiana has proven on a world stage now that as we’re going after these economies of the future…we have the tools, we have the land, we have the talent and workforce, we have the educational institutions that companies are looking for.”
And filling that workforce is another key for the state, Rosenberg said, as talent becomes what he calls a matter of supply and demand.
“We know based on our pipeline what the demand will be in terms of jobs over the next 10 years,” he said. “[We’re] really bringing you along and working with educational institutions, other state agencies, the private sector, to ensure that we’re training up that supply in terms of the workforce, having the credentials, the certificates, the training that’s needed to fill those jobs we know are coming.”
Quality of place efforts are part of the equation as well, and the state recently got a big boost to help in that arena. Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded the IEDC a $250 million grant for the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative, or READI, building upon the $500 million already awarded by the Indiana General Assembly.
“The Lilly Endowment grant will allow us to continue to grow and augment what’s already been successful, but also really focus on those transformational projects that communities are driving for,” he said.
Rosenberg said the state is also looking toward the spring when it hosts the second Global Economic Summit with registration opening later this month.
“In 2022, we had over 30 delegations come from foreign countries to talk about and discuss the big ideas that are happening and how we can move towards solutions,” he said. “We want to make 2024 even bigger and more impactful.”