The Joplin Regional Prosperity Initiative isn’t the only group trying to identify a vision for the future. With Project 17 and Imagine Pittsburg 2030 making similar inroads, they are not alone.
But after a meeting last week in Pittsburg, the JRPI is now one step closer to completing their visioning process. The JRPI has completed the second phase of its planned four-phase Regional Economic Development Strategy, which was tasked with identifying target markets.
The first phase of the strategy was to create a “competitive snapshot.” In essence, this was gathering and compiling information from interviews, surveys, focus groups, studies and more to establish what the market looks like from an economic development standpoint.
The second phase is about identifying target markets. Specifically, those area that economic leaders should make priorities in the coming years because of the potential of these markets to create jobs and wealth in the region.
Ultimately, Market Street — the company tasked with developing the strategy — identified three target markets for the region: manufacturing, warehousing/distribution and diversified professional services.
In manufacturing, the report of the second phase notes this includes existing sectors such as equipment, components, specialty food production and packaging. The report suggests working on the emerging sector of advanced materials and composites, which could include Pittsburg State’s planned Polymer Chemistry degree. Also included in this category is the possibility of using current resources to focus on renewable and alternative energy sources within the manufacturing heading.
The second target marketing was warehousing/distribution, with a notable emphasis in the Joplin region on trucking and rail services. Underground warehousing could be an option according to the report, as well as developing overall warehousing/distribution services.
Finally, diversified professional services were identified as a target market for the Greater Joplin region. This sector is largely the support services for major businesses, including management, administration, marketing, technology development and more. The report indicates the region should focus on “onshoring” projects as well as sharing services among firms. One opportunity using existing resources could be to provide corporate support services that could serve multiple clients at the same time.
However, just because these three were the only three target markets identified does not mean they would be the only focuses of the region’s economic drivers.
“I don’t think anybody was really surprised by the target markets identified,” said Mark Turnbull, Pittsburg economic development director. “These are just the three basic targets. They also noted that we have excellent education and our universities are really drivers in our economy. Nontargeted sectors like health care and education are not within the target markets, but that doesn’t mean they are not important to our region.”
The third phase of the strategy will be to create an overall regional strategy, and the final phase will be to identify plans for implementation over a five-year term.
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 140.
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