State of Illinois new five-year plan emphasizes innovation
The newly released report is titled "Open for Business: Illinois' 2024 Economic Growth Plan."
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) has released “Open for Business: Illinois’ 2024 Economic Growth Plan,” a comprehensive five-year plan to guide the state’s economic development priorities, strategies, and initiatives.
The report emphasizes innovation, focusing on burgeoning fields such as quantum computing, and aims to nurture high-growth sectors like the life sciences, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing while providing a 21st-century workforce equipped to meet the demands of those rapidly evolving industries.
The 2024 Economic Growth Plan is guided by four overarching economic development goals:
- Focus on high growth sectors and continue overall business climate improvements;
- Advance comprehensive economic development efforts for business growth and attraction;
- Promote equitable growth by empowering workers, entrepreneurs, and communities; and
- Build out the new clean energy economy.
The plan also focuses on small businesses and entrepreneurs by:
- Furthering the state’s investments in the Illinois Innovation Network (a collaboration of the state’s public universities to drive innovation and economic growth throughout Illinois);
- Providing more access to business grants and loans;
- Promoting the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs);
- Commercializing new technologies from the state’s two national labs and research universities; and
- Supporting workforce education and training initiatives—from elementary school to adulthood—to equip Illinois residents with the skills needed for current and future in-demand, high-wage occupations.
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