Executive Voices

Partnerships
The RTRP's Future Competitiveness initiative proves regionalism is working

By Southgate Jones III

The seemingly endless cascade of news about job losses and plant closings obscures some of the signs that better times are on the horizon. Amid the downturn, North Carolina has been able to grow jobs in healthcare, construction and services. Our tourism economy remains vibrant. The worst of our fiscal problems appear to be behind us. Educational reforms enacted in the late-1990s have begun bearing unmistakable fruit.

In the 13-county Research Triangle Region, the prospects for long-term prosperity have been made stronger by the quiet workings of a 36-member task force that recently unveiled its exhaustively-researched strategy. Comprised of outstanding leaders from across our region, the Future Competitiveness Task Force has spent the last 10 months designing a plan to make the region the top spot for Knowledge Age jobs in the early 21st Century. The task force has enjoyed the inspired leadership of former governor Jim Hunt, UNC System President Molly Broad and Duke University President Nan Keohane, and a host of organizations from Research Triangle Institute to the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center.

If it is to succeed, the task force’s “clusters-based” approach to economic development will leverage every facet of this region’s human, institutional and physical resources.

Our excellent research universities and community colleges will be critical. By producing a consistent stream of well-qualified workers, these remarkable institutions have long been our ace-in-the-whole. But they have evolved into a true partner with companies here in solving technical and business problems, converting ideas into actual jobs for North Carolinians. Nor should their cultural, athletic and recreational programs, which are a central part of the region’s eclectic quality-of-life, be overlooked. More recently, our higher education leaders have embraced a new and prominent role in the increasingly collaborative process of economic development, bringing their ideas and experience to state, local and regional development organizations.

We will continue to rely on innovation and leadership from key organizations such as the Biotechnology Center and the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. These institutions and the gifted individuals who lead them are ample evidence that our claim as one of the nation’s most business-friendly destinations is more than promotional hyperbole. In focusing on the problems and possibilities lurking ahead, these organizations are a daily reminder that this region’s greatest days are in front of us, not in our past.

State-of-the-art industrial and commercial “product” will also keep us ahead of the competition. Raleigh’s Centennial Campus offers a physical and functional model of the environment tomorrow’s firms will need in order to innovate and drive their businesses forward. Plans for Carolina North in Chapel Hill call for a similarly unique space where academia, industry and entrepreneurship will converge to spark job creation along the region’s western flank. Equally exciting is the Kerr-Tar Mini-hub initiative now underway in our northern tier counties. County officials there are pooling their resources, ideas and energies to erect a unique commercial park that will be capable of bringing promising job prospects to our rural communities.

The Research Triangle Region will continue to rely on an up-to-date transportation infrastructure. Regional coordination of highway planning is no longer an option, but a necessity, as are discussions of light rail and other transit systems. Business leaders, chamber officials and economic developers are working closely with staff at RDU airport to keep the region accessible to global commercial centers via air.

Woven throughout this vision are the thousands of men and women who comprise our exceptional laborforce. We can be proud of our outstanding public schools, which are providing the building blocks for a truly world-class workforce, and the results-oriented curriculum designers and instructional staff at our fine community colleges. When companies here must draw top management and technical talent from outside the region, we know that our diversity, affordability and livability will make their recruiting task less difficult.

The energy surrounding the Future Competitiveness initiative is ample evidence that regionalism in North Carolina has indeed turned an important corner. Prosperity in today’s global economy knows no town limits or county lines — nor does economic hardship. Recent studies by UNC’s Office of Economic Development and other groups have affirmed regional development programs as a key driver of success in the modern marketplace. Through our membership in the North Carolina Partnership for Economic Development, our organization works with the N.C. Department of Commerce and our six regional counterparts in sharing information and expertise.

In our region’s pioneering work with clusters, we are building a framework that can be easily adopted elsewhere in the state. But the central question will be the same: how do we grow good jobs in an ever-evolving economy?

For us, the solution is recruiting the most innovative companies we can — and helping facilitate their success once they’re here. We’re also renewing our support for start-up firms taking root in the region.

On that score, the task force itself is a shining symbol of the value of our existing industry — not just as taxpayers and job generators, but as corporate citizens genuinely concerned about the Research Triangle Region — and willing to offer their leadership in making it everything it can possibly be.

Southgate Jones III, chairman of Research Triangle Regional Partnership, is an executive with BB&T Insurance Services in Durham. Along with Commerce Secretary Jim Fain, he co-chairs the North Carolina Partnership for Economic Development.