The Economic Policy Council, remaining low key publicly during an election year, has quietly been developing plans to launch two new Centers of Excellence by spring, is addressing critical workforce development issues, and has begun to look at economic policy on a broader regional basis.
Chief on its agenda are issues of workforce development, K-12 reform, positioning, and transportation improvement, all part of the council’s work plan, from its inception in 1996 to the year 2000. The council also hopes to address what Kip Bergstrom, its director says are the harder issues of land use planning and how to use economic development to enhance Narragansett Bay as a natural and recreational resource.
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With the aid of consultant Michael Gallis & Associates, the council is developing a report that it hopes will provide an overview of Rhode Island’s competitiveness within the Boston metro region, and the relationship of the local economy to the rest of New England and the Northeast, nationally and globally. “The larger issues are regional,” Bergstrom said. But selling that idea may be harder, even outside Rhode Island, where Bergstrom said he doesn’t believe there is a “consciousness that this (regionalized approach) is a compelling issue.”
Before his arrival, Bergstrom said the council had done its internal analysis, analyzing the industries that are here, discussing the problems and the direction within Rhode Island. The next step, he said, is the external analysis, regional analysis.
Regional development
Where does Rhode Island fit regionally? Without this external analysis it is like one hand clapping.” Bergstrom said. “Our future is driven regionally. We can’t understand Rhode Island’s possibilities without understanding the region.”
Bergstrom said the council will make a presentation to the state House of Representatives and Senate in January, hopeful of winning their support. He expects the report to be completed by spring. In some instances, Bergstrom said, the council will pass the information off to other bodies that would look to develop specific programs and plans for implementation.
When the council was formed, as the public-private partnership that Gov. Lincoln Almond had supported during his initial campaign, it was to be a body that would advise the governor on economic policy, with the Economic Development Corporation serving to implement many of the programs. The council has come under some criticism for its low-profile publicly, a dramatic shift from its posture when it was formed. Bergstrom said the council consciously chose to remain low-key during an election year, because of its bi-partisan nature and decided not to be perceived as compromising its position in any way.
Bergstrom, however, says the council has been active, and will be mounting an aggressive public relations campaign. Here’s a brief overview of some of the council’s plans, projects and overall agenda: Centers of Excellence.
Bergstrom said the council hopes to add two additional Centers of Excellence by spring. It in its initial phase the council won state approval for two Centers, resulting in an Ocean Technology Center at the University of Rhode Island and a Cellular Medicine Center at Brown University.
The concept of Centers of Excellence is to develop partnerships with university- based programs to exploit the research to stimulate entrepreneurial efforts that will result in new businesses and job creation. Both of the existing centers have been considered successful, with the Center for Cellular Medicine expanding to a broader bio-technology center, Bergstrom said. Several start-up businesses have resulted from the Centers’ efforts.
Bergstrom said the council hopes to launch the two new centers on its own, seeking state funding in the spring. He said the council is looking at several possibilities for new centers, but listed four or five as probables, including plant science at the University of Rhode Island; computer graphics as a partnership of Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and the Fraunhofer Center for Research in Computer Graphics; a marine electronic program that could be developed with a partnership of the Ocean Technology Center and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC); surface technologies, dealing with microsensors and state of the art codings, at the University of Rhode Island; and potentially new products design at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Workforce Development
In late October, the EPC completed its preliminary survey of workforce requirements for the Information Technology industry in Rhode Island. Bergstrom said preliminary results indicate that information technology firms will create between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs over the next year, while using the broadest definition, Rhode Island’s private and public colleges and universities will graduate 350 with technology related degrees.
“What are we going to do to solve the problem?” said Bergstrom, also emphasizing that this is not just a Rhode Island problem, but a global one.
Initially, he said, there is a “need to take adults with technical aptitude, and retrain them in some certificate program.” Additionally, it is important to “beef up” college computer science programs. But no matter how much you build up college programs you need to interest students in enrolling in them. That, he said, leads to getting more exposure to math and science programs in the K-12 level.
Legislation that died last year, but that the council will support again this year, would be to provide tax credits for summer internships for teachers. “If teachers don’t understand it, it is difficult for students to understand it,” Bergstrom said.
Positioning and Transportation
The council is analyzing Rhode Island’s links to world, national, Northeast and regional economies to drive positioning and transportation development.
In its workplan it suggests that positioning include a strategy to “target firms considering greater Boston location for whom Rhode Island has a competitive advantage.” It suggests developing a program to define Rhode Island’s advantage, develop the story, identify the targets and develop a pricing strategy.
n terms of transportation, it specifically talks of exploiting the high speed rail and increasing commuter rail. The council is also developing indictors to measure the economy’s performance in each area and has convened a number of workshops surrounding particular issues in the areas of the environment; culture, arts and entertainment; land use; economic development; real estate; commercial real estate; and transportation.
