By: Erin Smith
North Carolina’s Southeast has is gearing up for their annual meeting to be held on Tuesday, January 31 at Cape Fear Vineyard and Winery. The keynote speaker for the evening will be David Fountain, President of Duke Energy North Carolina. Also, Chris Jong, President of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina will also offer remarks.
Steve Yost, President of North Carolina’s Southeast, said that the annual meeting will be a time for discussing and reviewing North Carolina’s Southeast successes in economic development over the past year and to facilitate the process of planning for the upcoming year.
North Carolina’s Southeast is a regional economic development public-private partnership that serves 15 counties including Bladen County. Counties served by North Carolina’s Southeast are Anson, Bladen , Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Hoke, Montgomery, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, and Wayne.
Steve Yost, President of North Carolina’s Southeast, said the partnership promotes and markets the region to potential companies and industries with goal of having them locate and invest in the region. He said the partnership consists of a 40 member board of directors that consists of representatives from each county and private industry govern the work of North Carolina’s Southeast. Funding for the partnership come from both public and private investments.
Bladen County is represented on the board by Bladen County Commissioner Chairman Charles Ray Peterson and Bladen County Economic Development Director Chuck Heustess. “We work closely with the local economic development boards in the region,” said Yost.
He said that NCSE is marketing the region at every opportunity attempting to lure industries and companies to invest in the area. Yost said that NCSE travels to various types of trade shows throughout the United States and overseas, as well as networking one-on-one with corporate agents, industrial brokers and collaborting with allied organizations to promote the region.
NCSE was created in 1993 by the NC General Assembly was a state regional economic development commission with a state appointed board until 2014. Yost siad Mr. Paul Butler on the state board for a number of years.
In 2014, the board transitioned to a public-private partnership. Yost said the partnership has not received any state funding since the transition in 2014. Instead, all funding comes from the counties that make up the partnership and private investment.
“The transition was a massive undertaking. We had really good leadership that helped to get that done,” said Yost.
He said from the perspective of the board, the transition to a public-private partnership has worked very well. Yost said that the transition has allowed for more local input and to allow the board more flexibility in its role. He said the partnership is actually stronger than the original state regional economic development commission.
Yost said, for example, the state regional economic development commission model was more bureaucratic and the current public-private partnership gives the board greater flexibility to execute its plans.
When asked about 2017, Yost said that North Carolina’s Southeast has gotten off to a strong start. Currently, the board is beginning to look at its 3-year strategic plan for 2017-2020. Yost said the board will be building off the success of the current strategic plan for the next three years. “We’ve already exceeded the goals (in this year’s plan),” said Yost.
Yost also said that the success North Carolina’s Southeast has had have led other counties to petition to join the regional partnership. He said whether or not the partnership adds any more counties to its region, the board is continuing with its original mission: to market all of the counties in the region.
Yost said the goal is to have anyone who has an interest in the region to come in and look at what these counties have to offer. “We try to match and recommend places in the region that meet that industry’s parameters,” said Yost.
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