Economic development in our region is carried out by several different entities, some of which have this responsibility as part of their governing charter.  Other entities do economic development as they carry out their primary job of building their organizations' business.

The Chamber of Commerce has been doing economic development for over 100 years in Texarkana and close-in surrounding communities. The Chamber's charge has been to attract "primary" job providers to our region in the manufacturing and service sectors. Primary jobs are generally considered as permanent, high paying jobs with excellent benefit packages and hopefully long time presence in the community. When businesses seek information and demographics about an area as well as available site locations they generally contact the Chamber as their first stop for such information. The Chamber has several site properties in and around Texarkana.

City and county governments are also entities that facilitate economic development by providing infrastructure and sometimes land in key areas of our region. They also work in concert with the Chamber to show and develop potential business sites. These entities also have taxing and bonding authority to help businesses locate to our region.
Local businessmen and entrepreneurs in their quest to grow their own businesses also carry out economic development. We have several real estate developers who have been instrumental in the attraction of many retail shops and hotels to the region.

Lastly we have a unique organization in our region that is responsible for the development of the currently available and soon to be available land at the Red River Army Depot. The Red River Redevelopment Authority is this entity and has representatives from all surrounding communities on its board of directors. Its' main responsibility is to attract business to the complex and help them get started. Land and some buildings are available for lease and possibly sale.
In addition to the afore mentioned economic development entities there are other organizations that contribute to economic development in our region. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission has a representative responsible for ED in our region. They steer possible businesses to our region if there seems to be a fit with what that business needs in a site and location. The same happens with the Texas Governors Office of Tourism and Economic Development. Also helping to attract new business and or expand existing businesses in our area is the local electric utility, AEP-SWEPCO. They have been instrumental in helping the region attract new business over the years. Lastly the Texas Workforce commission helps with ED by supplying training for workers if needed as well as applicant screening and testing.

It should also be noted that there are many other factors that enter into the Economic Development of a city or a region such as the educational system and its availability, health care facilities, religious practice opportunities, and the emphasis on cultural arts. The Texarkana region has all of these abundantly available and they have significant impact on ED in the area as well

Economic Development - Moving Forward

There are several entities that carry out economic development in Texarkana either by default (Texarkana Chamber) or as part of their actual business (Commercial Real Estate Developers), keeping in mind that there are other entities involved in regional ED as mentioned earlier.

Successful ED examples exist in our two states. In Arkansas, the northwest part of the state has what is known as the Northwest Council and the Little Rock region has what is known as the Metro Little Rock Alliance. The Northwest Council is comprised of "Heavy Hitters" from Business, Retail, Manufacturing, Trucking, Education, City Governments, and others that do strategic planning for the whole region with a time horizon of 15 to 20 years in to the future. The Metro Little Rock Alliance markets their 11 counties as a region in which those looking for new sites might consider for relocation or expansion. Although not personally acquainted with the Dallas and Fort Worth regions, I feel certain they market their metro areas in a similar manner.

The Texarkana region should do the same and the Economic Development Council of the Texarkana Chamber has initiated preliminary steps along this path. They had a Targeted Industry Study performed by an independent firm in 2005 that identified four areas that could be emphasized as strengths of our region and work on promoting these has begun. A region was identified encompassing an approximate 35-mile radius and information was solicited from the major cities in the region to include in a demographics profile for marketing purposes. Response from this initiative was minimal to my knowledge and needs further pursuit.

In a similar effort the Texarkana Chamber belongs to a group that has been called various names over the past several years and seen various iterations but is now known as TRI or Texarkana Regional Initiative. Their purpose is to attract business to the I 30/I 49 corridors in the region. They now have a paid director and members from Ashdown to Shreveport and Hope to New Boston and maybe further out from Texarkana.

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