The Maryland Economic Development Commission (MEDC), five-year strategic economic development plan, Charting Maryland’s Economic Path: Discovery, Diversity & Opportunity is available online at www.governor.maryland.gov/documents/MEDCreport.pdf.
The Commission, which was re-launched by the Governor in 2009 after being inactive for several years, developed the plan over 18 months with input from more than 250 business owners and four regional roundtable discussions around the State. Focused on four core strategies, the plan outlines a framework to position Maryland for growth; build on the State’s leading economic drivers, like life sciences, cyber security and federal and military operations; embrace regional and economic diversity in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture; and make it easier to do business in the State.
Following the passage this week by the Maryland General Assembly of several key economic development initiatives, including InvestMaryland, Governor Martin O’Malley today joined the Maryland Economic Development Commission (MEDC), Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, elected officials and emerging life sciences companies for the release of the Commission’s five-year strategic economic development plan, Charting Maryland’s Economic Path: Discovery, Diversity & Opportunity. The Commission, which was re-launched by the Governor in 2009 after being inactive for several years, developed the plan over 18 months with input from more than 250 business owners and four regional roundtable discussions around the State. Focused on four core strategies, the plan outlines a framework to position Maryland for growth; build on the State’s leading economic drivers, like life sciences, cyber security and federal and military operations; embrace regional and economic diversity in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture; and make it easier to do business in the State.
“I want to thank the Commission for many months of hard work in developing this plan, which charts a clear path for accelerating our mission of creating and retaining jobs and positioning Maryland as a leader in the new economy,” said Governor O’Malley. “While these targeted strategies will help guide our economic development efforts for the next five years and beyond, we have already laid the groundwork with bold initiatives, like InvestMaryland, that give Maryland a unique competitive advantage to be able to fight for and win the jobs of tomorrow.”
The plan is organized into four major themes:
Position Maryland for growth, through accelerating efforts to sustain a knowledge-dependent, global, entrepreneurial economy, driven by innovation.
Build on, and protect, leading drivers of economic growth, such as life sciences, information technology, and federal and military-related economic activity.
Embrace regional and economic diversity, by investing in and transforming Maryland’s traditional sectors of agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.
Make it easy to do business and live in Maryland (State, local and Federal), through transparency, predictability and automation.
“The strategic plan released today took stock of Maryland’s strengths and weaknesses in the current competitive environment to create the optimum conditions to attract, retain and support the creation of businesses and jobs,” said Steve Dubin, co-chair of the MEDC and CEO of Martek Biosciences Corp. “As a life sciences executive in M
