Salt Lake City’s leaders focus on the future as well as the investments and partnerships required to ensure future competition and continued prosperity for the Salt Lake region, according to a new report released today by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The report, Enterprising Cities, was commissioned by the Foundation and prepared by Praxis Strategy Group.
“Enterprise-friendly leadership and policies at the city level can facilitate local economic growth by supporting entrepreneurs and mobilizing effective partnerships for improving the conditions for business and job growth,” said Al Martinez-Fonts, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. “We need more policies like those implemented by Salt Lake City, in partnership with the Salt Lake Chamber, to drive stronger growth, competition, and success among businesses across the country.”
The Enterprising Cities report highlights seven cities—Dayton, Ohio; Irving, Texas; Memphis, Tenn.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Antonio, Texas; and Sioux Falls, S.D.—which, in their own unique way, are examples of how enterprise-friendly strategies and partnerships can create an environment in which free enterprise creates jobs and prosperity.
The Salt Lake Chamber joins 19 other chambers of commerce from across the state, as well as several business associations throughout Utah, in support of the Prosperity 2020 movement. The goal of the program is to strengthen the economy by improving education, ensuring the state will have plenty of well-educated and highly-skilled workers. Prosperity 2020 aims to increase investment, innovation, and accountability to build the strongest economy in the nation with the best-educated workforce. It’s what the U.S. Chamber Foundation calls, “a national model for effective business advocacy in education.”
The Enterprising Cities report is available here.
We also spoke via Google+ Hangout with Mark Schill, the vice president of research at Praxis Strategy Group, about the study and the importance of a business community working with policy makers in the best interest of the community long term.
