Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 11, 1993 TAG: 9304110078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STATE LACKS ECONOMIC PLAN
The Roanoke Valley isn't alone in not having a long-range plan for economic development.The state doesn't have one, either.
And top Virginia business leaders, like their counterparts in the Roanoke Valley, want something done about it.
"If government and business don't work together, we can literally destroy the economy," said James T. Holland, president of Winchester's O'Sullivan Corp. and chairman of the Virginia Business Council.
He spoke during a "Virginia Economic Summit" in which speaker after speaker sounded the call for long-range economic planning and greater private-sector business involvement in formulating state economic development policy.
"I fear we're losing ground to the competition," said Robert F. Norfleet, head of the Crestar Financial Corp.'s capital region. "We've got to be better organized and more committed."
Sponsored by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the summit took place Thursday in Richmond.
On Friday, the Roanoke Times & World-News reported that The Roanoke Valley Business Council, a fledgling confederation of corporate leaders, will try to unite disparate government and civic groups in the formulation of a single economic strategy.
One problem is that the potential participants have plans and projects of their own and tend to regard one another as competitors rather than partners.
Evidently it's little different at the state level.
"Business leaders and public servants often discuss the need to work together," Gov. Douglas Wilder said in a speech at the economic summit, "but too often partisanship and meaningless disputes are permitted to distract us from this goal.
"This is unfortunate, because I noticed on trade missions to Europe, the Far East and Africa that public-private partnerships are certainly not the exception around the world - they are the rule. The companies that are the most competitive are those that thrive in a harmonious atmosphere, where government and business view the entire range of public problems as our responsibility."
According to Miles Friedman, executive director of the National Association of State Development Agencies, more than 30 states have long-range economic development plans or are preparing them. The business community is often closely involved, he said.
Friedman was at the summit to release an association assessment of Virginia's competitiveness in recruiting new business and retaining that which already is in the state. Among the study's mixed bag of findings - based on interviews with government and corporate leaders - was that the "lack of a comprehensive long-term plan and statewide vision" is a major "impediment" in economic development competition with other states.
The study concludes that "Virginia should move forward in the formulation of a comprehensive, long-term economic development vision for the future and should develop a strategy for achieving that vision. The development of that vision and strategy should actively involve statewide public sector and business community interests, and should engage public and private groups throughout the state."
Such a plan is needed "desperately," in the opinion of Alexandria lawyer William G. Thomas, a panelist at the summit. Among the problems he said it should address is the lack of continuity in economic development efforts.
What the state needs, he said, is a policy-making body with sufficient structural permanence to assure that economic development efforts don't have to start from scratch every time there is a change in governors.