Shapiro launches new 10-year statewide economic development plan

WILKES-BARRE — Gov. Josh Shapiro and Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Rick Siger on Tuesday announced the creation of the Pennsylvania Economic Development Strategy — the first comprehensive plan of its kind to guide the Commonwealth’s economic growth in almost 20 years.

Since day one, Gov. Shapiro said he and his Administration have been working aggressively to make Pennsylvania a leader in innovation and economic development, and create economic opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.

Shapiro said the new 10-year strategy, will capitalize on the Commonwealth’s strengths and reignite the state’s economy.

“For too long, Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have invested and focused on economic development, while our Commonwealth has lacked a targeted game plan and serious investment,” Shapiro said. “With this plan, for the first time in nearly two decades, Pennsylvania has a serious economic development strategy that brings together our private and public sectors, our highly skilled workers, and our world-class universities. We’re ready to work together to grow our economy, create jobs, foster innovation and economic opportunity, and build vibrant communities — because when we work together, Pennsylvania Gets It Done.”

Shapiro said Pennsylvania has a strong foundation for the new economic development strategy, including proximity to major U.S. markets and relative low cost of doing business; the more than 23 Fortune 500 companies and over 1 million small businesses in the Commonwealth; 190,000 skilled graduates produced by colleges and universities every year; a diverse, talented workforce, and much more.

But Shapiro said there are challenges that must be addressed to compete and succeed globally. For example, the governor said Pennsylvania faces critical workforce challenges, unnecessary barriers to success for new startups and tech spin-offs, and a complex and underfunded suite of economic development incentives. And he said there are deep disparities in economic performance among regions of the state, as well as a lack of targeted, meaningful focus on the key industries that drive the economy’s growth now and into the future.

Shapiro said he is changing how we do business in Pennsylvania — and he said his Administration has hit the ground running, securing $1.2 billion in private sector investment, significantly cutting down business licensing time, and rethinking the way government can work at the speed of business in his first year.

In that time, Shapiro said Pennsylvania added more than 100,000 new jobs, increased economic output, and saw its unemployment rate drop.

Building on that progress, recognizing strengths, and with a clear-eyed understanding of our challenges, Shapiro said his plan sets forth five ambitious goals:

• Invest in our economic growth to compete, and prioritize economic development investments that capitalize on Pennsylvania’s strengths and result in real opportunities for our businesses, communities, and residents.

• Continue to make government work at the speed of business, and ensure all companies find an attractive business environment where they can innovate, thrive, and get responses from government on a reasonable timeline.

• Open doors of opportunity for all Pennsylvanians, and increase pathways to the workforce that enable every Pennsylvanian to secure a family-sustaining job and have a meaningful career.

• Innovate to win, because innovators become entrepreneurs and new discoveries enable our people and companies to succeed.

• Build vibrant and resilient regions, where every community flourishes, focusing on each region’s diverse strengths, and localities can provide for the needs of all residents and businesses.

Shapiro said each of these five goals includes specific, dedicated initiatives to maximize the plan’s impact.

On Feb. 6, Shapiro will hold his annual budget address. He said his Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget will call for significant investments, directly tied back to this 10-year strategy. The budget address will issue a strong call to action for partners across all sectors to join in with their support.

Some of these investments include:

• A major investment in site development to bring more commercial and industrial sites online and ensure companies have options for attractive business environments where they can thrive in Pennsylvania. Last fall, the Shapiro Administration launched a new pilot program called PA SITES to provide $10 million in grant funding to conduct site assessments and prepare them for remediation. DCED received 102 applications requesting more than $236 million in funding.

• $2 million for ‘Career Connect’ — an investment that Shapiro said will connect employers with talented workers, help create thousands of internships, keep young people in the Commonwealth, and enable every Pennsylvanian to secure a family-sustaining job.

• Significant new innovation funding that provides support for start-ups and entrepreneurs, and an additional $10 million for the Agriculture Innovation Program to support innovation in the agricultural industry.

• $3.5 million to launch the new Pennsylvania Regional Challenge, which will incentivize regional growth, build vibrant and resilient regions, and support communities by investing funds into the development of comprehensive strategies to propel entire regions forward.

• $25 million for the Main Street Matters program, to support small businesses and commercial corridors that are the backbone of communities across our Commonwealth. This new program will build upon and modernize the Keystone Communities program.

“If we are going to be competitive in attracting new businesses and helping Pennsylvania businesses grow, then we need to invest in economic development,” Shapiro said. “Over the last five years Ohio, New York, and New Jersey all committed far more resources to economic development than Pennsylvania. Ohio, for example, has one-and-a-half million fewer people than Pennsylvania, but they’ve provided at least seven times more economic incentives to encourage businesses to relocate and grow there. We need to catch up, and I hope my colleagues in the General Assembly will work with me to make that happen.”

To compete in today’s global marketplace, Shapiro said this plan also focuses and amplifies the Commonwealth’s investment in high-growth, high-value sectors where we have both a serious competitive advantage and where we expect significant potential for growth in the next 10 years — especially in higher-wage, family sustaining jobs. Based on rigorous data-driven analysis, the Shapiro Administration will focus our resources in the following five key industry sectors: Agriculture, Energy, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, and Robotics and Technology.

“To compete nationally and globally, Pennsylvania must make aggressive investments in economic development,” said DCED Secretary Siger. “Our competition has long been committed to investing in sustaining growth, jobs, and innovation — and those efforts have allowed them to surpass Pennsylvania for far too long. But we’re no longer accepting the status quo and hiding from these challenges. Today, we issue a strong call to action to partners across the Commonwealth to join us in supporting the need for significant investments in Pennsylvania’s economic success.”