Economic Development Advisory Committee

The committee met here in Anchorage on March 19th, 2008 at the offices of the Chugach Regional Corporation.   Chairman of the Chugach Alaska board Sheri Buretta presented to the group on the economic development efforts within their region of the State.   The committee members also received a report on the recent completion of the VIBES - Viable Small Business Enterprises for Rural Alaska - report by Christi Bell and Jane Angvik.   An interesting finding was that community cohesion plays a large role in the success of small business in Rural Alaska no matter the size of the community.   At my request Dr. Tony Nakazawa, professor of economics at UAF, and former member of the boundary commission presented to the group the various and inconsistent complex layers of governance that currently exists within the State.   The regions identified as being more cohesive were the Southeast region and the Bering Straits region.   The next meeting date was set for May 6th and June 10th, with agenda items of reviewing the submitted Letters of Interest and a review of policies at the Denali Commission.

Letter of Interest

68 letters of interest in economic development of rural economies were submitted during the open call.   The committee membership is reviewing the submitted ideas and will be addressing them at their next meeting to include setting up criteria for future project selection by a separate selection committee.   Thank you to everyone for submitting your ideas and expect more to come on the topic.