Feb. 29, 2012

The Phoenix City Council on Tuesday approved an Economic Development Strategic Plan to position Phoenix as a globally competitive and sustainable city.

As part of the plan, Phoenix will build upon its core strengths to drive job creation to support sustained economic growth.

"This strategy serves as a launch point to guide Phoenix’s economic development, and with this plan, our city is poised to move from a tough recession to what inevitably will be a period of robust economic growth,” said Mayor Greg Stanton. “Now it’s time to put this plan into action and make it a reality.”

The plan’s targeted sectors will focus on the following key industries: bio-life sciences; advanced business services; manufacturing; world business, including trade and foreign direct investment; sustainable industries and enterprises, including “clean tech;” and established emerging enterprises, which are young firms that start small and have a high propensity to grow.  

“This strategic plan is extremely important as the city continues to focus on job creation and sustained economic growth,” said City Manager David Cavazos.

“Our department’s priorities and organizational structure has been adjusted to refocus our service delivery on promoting and selling Phoenix for new business investment, ” said John Chan, director, Community and Economic Development Department.     

Moving forward, the 10 key priorities that the department will immediately focus on to advance Phoenix’s vision for economic prosperity are:

1.   Focus on core economic development programs in key industy sectors

2.   Implement a California economic development strategy

3.   Initiate Planning and Development of a second Phoenix Biomedical Campus

4.   Open a Phoenix Workforce Business and Training Center

5.   Leverage economic development tools to strengthen Phoenix's competitive position

6.   Promote Phoenix for international business, trade and investment

7.   Invest in market intelligence and technology to drive priorities and outcomes

8.   Streamline city regulatory processes

9.   Forge strong partnerships with community and business organizations to enhance capacity and service delivery

10.  Develop a marketing, outreach and communications plan
 

For more information on the Community and Economic Development Department, vist phoenix.gov/econdev, call 602-262-5040 or follow @PHXEcondev on Twitter.
 

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