Goal: Quality Jobs and Higher Incomes for All Oregonians
The overriding goal of the Oregon Business Plan is to increase and maintain high-wage jobs that support families and maintain strong communities. Key measures of success are per capita income, reduction in poverty, and statewide job stability.
Unfortnuately, Oregon has not been meetings its goal. Since 1997, Oregon's per capita income has fallen off pace with the US average. Poverty rates are near the highest in the nation, and unemployment has been hovering above the national average in both good and bad economic times.
Vision: Industries Leading the Globe in Innovation and Sustainability
The Oregon Business Plan envisions the growth and success of leading-edge industries that sell their products and services outside of Oregon ("traded sector" industries).
Most jobs in a community are actually not in the traded sector, but in local service industries such as restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals and schools. However, because traded sector industries bring in the fresh dollars that allow these service industries to grow, we must pay special attention to them. Traded sector are industries are both small and large. According to one study, about 88% of companies that export have fewer than 200 employees.
The success of traded-sector industries is not random. These industries tend to "cluster" based on shared advantages such as natural resources, a specialized workforce, proximity to suppliers, and a policy environment conducive to the industry's activities.
While the future of these industries is in their own hands, it is critical that Oregon's leaders understand our key traded-sector industries, and pursue initiatives that continue to provide them with a competitive advantage over other places. Learn more about Oregon's traded sector industry clusters.
Strategy: The "4 P's for Prosperity"
When leaders of Oregon's Oregon’s traded-sector industries are asked what makes a competitive business climate for their industry, they offer a remarkably similar set of issues:
People: A talented workforce
Productivity: Quality infrastructure, reasonable business costs and a competitive regulatory climate.
Place: An attractive quality of life and quality public services that attract and retain talented people.
Pioneering Innovation: An innovative, entrepreneurial spirit statewide.
While the needs of individual industries may differ, the "4ps for Prosperity" provide a framework for thinking about how we improve the business climate. Finding the right mix of the 4ps that supports our key traded sector industries is the task of community and policy leaders, and of the Oregon Business Plan.
Initiatives: Policies and Actions to Implement the Plan
The challenge of the Oregon Business Plan is to identify the best mix of the four Ps to support our key industries – and to craft policy recommendations that improve Oregon's competitive position in them. To develop these initiatives, the Oregon Business Plan Steering Committee conducts regular interviews and focus groups with representatives of Oregon's traded sector industries to find out what they need to thrive in Oregon.
Among the many initiatives and dozens of action items introduced since the Plan was launched in 2002, many have already been achieved. These include key investments in innovative signature research, critical road and bridge improvements, a federal forest health bill, expansion of development-ready industrial lands, the creation of a state rainy day fund, bold new goals for educational attainment, and a coordinated state branding campaign.
However, significant work remains in each of these areas and others.
Learn more about the Plan initiatives.
The Process
Click here for a diagram of the OBP process