What is Economic Development?

What is Economic Development?

Moving Lewis County Forward Blog Post by Brittany Davis, Lewis County Economic Development Executive Director

Let’s talk about Economic Development and what it means to Lewis County.

When people think of economic development, they think of “thriving economy” or “jobs,” which are both outcomes of economic development. But all too often, many do not understand the behind-the-scenes efforts that take place to make economic development happen. 

Many people ask, what is Economic Development?  As we cannot simply define the term as one certain thing, it is more of a process that creates a thriving community where people and prosperity are located.   Economic Development is the planning, organizing and acting to support job stability & creation, tax base stability and growth, and diversification of an economy.

At Lewis County Economic Development, we are focused on a number of activities that help to create a thriving community and economy.  Through developing partnerships, engaging in research and education, developing sound economic development policies, increasing our outreach and visibility to the business community, and strategic funding development, we are able to engage in a number of economic development initiatives.  These initiatives include things like business retention & expansion, site & infrastructure development, workforce development, business technical assistance & financing, creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem, placemaking (creating a quality place to live & work), community development and marketing of our many assets. 

Lewis County Economic Development works with a number of partners to make these economic development activities happen.  As a staff of three, we recognize our organization cannot do economic development by ourselves.  We partner with our local and state government, local business resource organizations such as the Watertown Small Business Development Center, small and large businesses in our community, our counterpart regional economic development organizations, and many more, to create partnerships that lead to overall growth of our economy. In effort to promote our economic development efforts, we utilize our Naturally Lewis brand to promote Lewis County as a great place to live, work and build business.  We market Lewis County as the natural choice to plant the seeds for business growth, and in order to do that, we need to create great communities.  We want to inform, assist and create meaningful collaborations with people in our communities to create trust and more open-ended discussions on what people want for the future of Lewis County.  If you are interested in learning more about economic development initiatives in Lewis County, please visit www.naturallylewis.com, or call our office at 315-376-3014.

Naturally Lewis – Moving Lewis County Forward is a monthly column published in the Lowville Journal & Republican centering on providing education and updates on economic development initiatives in Lewis County.  This month’s column was provided by Brittany Davis, Executive Director at Lewis County Economic Development.