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Setting VITAL goals called key to economic growth

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Manufacturing jobs are returning to the United States and central Illinois is in a great position to grab its share of those and other jobs, an economic development strategist said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Morton Economic Development Council.

But the region also must keep abreast of economic trends and transform itself into the type of area that can attract quality workers from all over the world, said Frank Knott, president of Vital Economy Inc., the Maryland group that is helping form new economic development strategies for central Illinois.

Frank Knott, president of Vital Economy Inc."There is a real opportunity in this region to embrace becoming a diverse, multi-cultural welcoming community," Knott told more than 120 in attendance while explaining what it would take to attract quality employees in the age 25 to 44 group as well as those coming to the United States to work.

Attracting them, he said, is critical for Focus Forward CI, the group that has been formed in the last year to guide economic development in central Illinois. It is that group that brought in Knott and Vital Economy because of the concern of some that the region wasn't seeing enough growth.

Knott said his analysis of the region showed that most of it hasn't seen any real growth for several years. He was speaking to a small pocket of the region that has been one of the exceptions and he praised the leadership of the Morton community, citing Morton EDC head Jennifer Daly in particular.

But there must be collaborative efforts throughout the region for sustained growth to occur and he said those areas that are seeing growth should be willing to share in the prosperity. "We should all go back to what we learned in kindergarten, that sharing is good and it is profitable. If collaboration can actually grow the economic pie of the whole region, everybody can share," Knott said.

Keeping abreast of economic trends is one of the most important aspects of sustaining growth, he added. One of the most significant trends now is the insourcing of manufacturing jobs after years of outsourcing. China, he said, has lost 15 million manufacturing jobs the last couple years because the costs of manufacturing have escalated greatly. Chief among them is energy, an area in which the U.S. is making strides, and the cost of transporting manufactured goods from China to other parts of the world, including the United States.

Other costs that have risen in Asia include wages and corruption. The latter, Knott said, is the cost associated with industrial espionage, much more of a problem in China than in the United States. The threat of theft of intellectual property has rendered doing business abroad a risky venture, he added.

Now that the United States is once again the less expensive place for manufacturing and because it is growing a more qualified workforce, Knott said he expects 3 million new manufacturing jobs to be created in the United States within a few years.

But Knott said it is equally important to grow small business opportunities. Noting that the vast amount of jobs in the United States are in small business, he said innovation also is important. "If you are not innovating, you are falling behind," he said.

Also, Knott said, people looking for work these days are putting a higher priority on going where they can continuously learn.

Knott is familiar with working in Illinois as his organization helped an economic development group form in southern Illinois. Therefore he knows the challenges of getting full collaboration when there are so many taxing districts to consider. Illinois, he said, has more taxing districts than any other state in the country. "We must create strategy that cuts across those boundaries," he said.

Focus Forward CI presented its "Five Year SMART Goals" it wants to achieve by 2018. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Based.

Those goals include increasing the region's population, including adding more than 21 Gen Y residents, or those ages 25 to 44. That would increase that group's percentage of the region's total population from 25 to 30 percent.

Another goal is to create more than 13,000 new high-wage jobs across the region and to improve the average wages of the 19,000 existing jobs by $5,000 a year. The group also wants to increase the number of people who have attained bachelor and graduate degrees by 2,300.

On the business side, Focus Forward CI wants more than 500 new business starts by 2018 and 600 new mid-sized firms and to raise nearly 500 more families out of poverty.

Knott said those goals can be measured and added that is important because it is about the only way to accurate track progress. "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it," he said.

During the luncheon outgoing Morton EDC president Mike Witzig listed the accomplishments the organization realized in 2012. Those include 152.5 new jobs in the community, 12 new businesses and seven business expansions. There was $12.4 million in commercial construction, 33 percent over the goal, and $3.8 million in retail sales taxes were generated.

Brad Braker, the incoming board president, said the EDC's goals for 2013 include another economic partnership trip to China, generating more sales taxes and continuing efforts to build a new indoor water park.

Also on Wednesday, Tom Marchal was named the winner of the 2012 Morton Venture Award, the organization's highest individual award presented annually.

Marchal is one of the owners of The Iona Group, a technology company in Morton.  

About the Author
Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).