Economic Essentials

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Rural Center work is guided by, and focused around

six Economic Essentials.

Education - Health - Natural Resources
Infrastructure - Economy - Community Capacity

The six economic essentials are a result of the original Virginia Rural Prosperity Commission study

The Center for Rural Virginia and  Council for Rural Virginia Boards continued to work with the study as their foundation to consider foundational needs for healthy rural communities. As a result the six Economic Essentials were adopted.

The recommendations address six strategic needs for prosperity in rural Virginia

1. Capital Access: No place can prosper without entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs require access to capital. Ways are needed to make more credit available to rural entrepreneurs who have good ideas but little collateral. The capital access program Virginia already has in place needs to be expanded to reach rural areas.

2. Workforce Training and Adult Education: Rural Virginia suffers from having too many adults without high school diplomas and with inadequate opportunities for customized worker training and retraining. Without a high school diploma or GED, workforce training may be of little value.  The community college system must be made a partner in a major effort to upgrade the human capital in rural Virginia.

3. Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure: For understandable economic reasons, the private sector has been slow to provide high-speed, broadband digital telecommunications access to much of rural Virginia.  Returns on investment are much higher if they are made in or between urban centers. Yet without such access, rural communities have no possibility of overcoming the disadvantages of remoteness. Public/private partnerships are needed to ensure that rural Virginia is not left behind in acquiring access to digital telecommunication opportunities.

Tiered Incentives for Investment in Lagging Rural Areas: Several neighboring states provide tiered tax incentives aimed at offsetting some of the inherent disadvantages of being remote and lacking the critical mass needed to sustain economic growth. A tiered incentive program, tailored to Virginia’s needs, is essential for communities in rural Virginia to compete successfully with places in neighboring states.

Long-Term Institutional Support: Local grassroots leadership in rural Virginia must be enhanced and nourished. A focal point for rural concerns must be established through new public/private sector partners in the form of a Center for Rural Virginia.

The Center for Rural Virginia fulfilled the following recommendation in 2004 with the appointment of Secretary Robert Bloxom.

Create a cabinet-level Secretary of Agriculture: Virginia is one of few states that does not have a cabinet-level secretary of agriculture. A prosperous agriculture will not be enough to assure a prosperous rural Virginia.  Yet a prosperous and innovative agriculture is important for economic health in rural Virginia, and achieving such requires that agriculture be represented at the highest levels of the executive branch of the Commonwealth government.

Center for Rural Virginia - public/private sector partners 
 

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