In This Issue
![EDA Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Erskine and Policy Advisor Julie Wenah pose for a photo with manufacturing students at Austal USA in Mobile, AL](https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/fancy_images/USEDA/2016/10/1048481/1067929/photo-1_crop.jpg) Julie Wenah is a Policy Advisor at the Economic Development Administration
Manufacturing is the backbone of the American economy.
Our ability to innovate and create products, tools, and services that transform the way we live and operate is essential to our national competitiveness.
In 2013 President Obama tasked the Economic Development Administration (EDA) with creating a program that recognizes the resurgence of U.S manufacturing and incentivizes communities to operate within a region to leverage local assets to become globally competitive. As a result, the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) program was born.
My background is in intellectual property and energy/infrastructure in Africa, so when I joined EDA nearly two years ago, I was excited to delve deep into the world of manufacturing. It has been quite a ride.
The
best part of leading this initiative is getting to work alongside talented
federal partners across the country and 12 other federal partner
agencies to support manufacturing communities.
I speak on behalf of EDA's federal partners when I say that our favorite part of this initiative is
working alongside amazing manufacturing communities who have termed us
their "Best Friends Forever". We
operate as a family - there is no 'you' and 'us' between the federal government and
manufacturing communities. We work collectively to enhance and improve the
economic development climate in these communities.
Another great example of collaboration is when Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Erskine traveled to communities on the West Coast/Rocky Mountain region. He visited a bike factory in Utah, after visiting a composite recycling center in Washington the day before. Utah was looking for ways to discard scrap from bike manufacturing and Deputy Assistant Secretary Erskine was able to connect the factory and recycling center with one another.
On October 7, we celebrate the 5th Annual Manufacturing Day, or as we like to call the month of October here at EDA, "Manufacturing Month."
EDA leadership will continue to travel - to manufacturing communities to amplify the partnerships and collaborative efforts catalyzing change in regions across the country.
Throughout 2015 and 2016, EDA, along with 12 other federal agencies, have traveled across the country in the IMCP Manufacturing Tour. This tour has given federal leadership the opportunity to engage directly with manufacturing communities - including manufacturers, educational institutions, state and local officials, and economic development organizations - and to see firsthand the impact of investments on the ground and discuss challenges and creative solutions to remedying those challenges.
These visits have been impactful and have meant a great deal to manufacturing communities. In the Southwest Alabama region, the community shared how the visit of Assistant Secretary Jay Williams was important to the self-esteem of the community and has effectively brought together the rural and urban communities within that region.
There are many challenges in U.S. manufacturing particularly around workforce development and the lack of skilled workers. I am a proponent of continuing education formally and informally. We are all constantly learning and growing. There are a variety of great paying manufacturing careers that many people are not aware of or have been exposed to. Some often say experience is the best teacher, but I truly feel exposure is the best teacher. There is no better way to become knowledgeable about opportunities and pathways without hearing it and seeing it from manufacturers, state/local officials, educational institutions, and economic development organizations.
Here at EDA, we are taking steps to support manufacturing communities in achieving that greater goal. I am hopeful that through regional collaboration and multifaceted partnerships our nation will take its rightful place as the global leader in manufacturing.
Read below for recent manufacturing success stories in
the Southwest Alabama and Greater Rochester/Finger Lakes regions.
![The Greater Rochester/Finger Lakes Region Manufacturing Community in New York.](https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/fancy_images/USEDA/2016/10/1048498/1067931/photo-3_crop.jpg) In May 2014, the Milwaukee
Region received a special designation as a “Manufacturing Community” by EDA’s Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) program.
The New York Finger Lakes region IMCP Community, led by the city of Rochester, was one of 12 communities that
was designated based on the strength of their economic development plans, the
potential for impact in their communities, and the depth of their partnerships
across the public and private sectors to carry out their plans.
On September 27, Commerce
Secretary Penny Pritzker announced that the community, along with 11 others, was
redesignated for an additional two-year term.
The benefits of the program
are being felt widely in the region.
For example, with a $110 million
seed capital investment from the Department of Defense to help the region recover from the loss of Kodak, the AIM Photonics has attracted $1.4 billion in private sector dollars and created
800 manufacturing jobs just a year after launching.
In addition, in August 2016, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced that EDA
would award $2.6 million in grants to High Tech Rochester, Inc., to establish a
business incubator space in a city-owned building. This project is estimated to
create 100 new startup businesses and 1,000 new jobs within the first five
years of operation.
Read more about the objectives of the Greater Rochester/Finger Lakes Region IMCP Community here (PDF).
![Map of 24 IMCP-designated manufacturing communities across the country.](https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/fancy_images/USEDA/2016/10/1048487/1067932/photo-4_crop.jpg)
On
September 27, 2016, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the
redesignation of 12 manufacturing communities under the Investing in
Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) initiative. The communities were
all initially designated under the first round of the IMCP competition in 2014.
The
IMCP is an EDA-led program designed to accelerate the resurgence of
manufacturing in communities nationwide by supporting the development of
long-term economic development strategies that help communities attract and
expand private investment in the manufacturing sector and increase
international trade and exports.
To earn the initial
designation, communities had to demonstrate the strength of an existing
manufacturing industry in their region/community and develop strategies to make
investments in six areas: workforce and training; research and innovation;
infrastructure and site development; supply chain support; trade and
international investment; and operational improvement and capital access.
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