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Crucial to any state's economic well-being is the clear understanding of its competitiveness. This goes beyond a state's relative strengths and areas for improvement. Competitiveness embraces the ability to provide an operating environment which enables a company to compete effectively in global markets. It includes an examination of the state's economy, industrial make-up and infrastructure.
Arizona gained an understanding of its competitiveness through the identification of economic "clusters," which are groups of interconnected businesses that form a significant economic unit. After identifying the industry groups, ongoing relationships were established between decision makers in those industries and public officials. The goal was to realize long-term growth in industries that provide stable, well-paying jobs, by concentrating economic development efforts on the cluster areas. The cluster identification process began with initiation of the Arizona Strategic Planning for Economic Development process.
Arizona Strategic Planning for Economic Development (ASPED) was formed to lead this effort. ASPED is a partnership of Arizona's leading economic development organizations. Specifically it contains the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Greater Tucson Economic Council, the Enterprise Network, and Arizona Department of Commerce.
It was created to respond to the Omnibus Economic Development Act, which was enacted in 1989 by the Arizona legislature and which charged the Arizona Department of Commerce with developing an assessment of the Arizona business climate as the basis for developing a strategic economic development plan for the state. It came about when the Enterprise Network' s Strategic Planning Task Force joined with the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (a public/private partnership officially chartered to represent Maricopa County government and thirteen cities and towns in metropolitan Phoenix), and the Greater Tucson Economic Council to raise private funds to match the funds made available by the state of Arizona to establish this unique public/private strategic planning effort.
The ASPED coalition looked to two groups for staff support. It employed SRI International, Center for Economic Competitiveness of Menlo Park, California, to write the ASPED plan and coordinate the group's efforts. In addition, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, an Arizona State University resource for public policy research, expertise, and insight, acted as a contributing partner in the formation of the ASPED plan.
The strategic planning effort that followed involved three phases:
* Strategic Assessment--An economic framework...