HARRISBURG – Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Dennis Davin has issued an update on the investments made by the department over the course of the past year in communities across Pennsylvania.
“The Department of Community and Economic Development is working to make communities stronger, to help businesses create jobs and ensure that workers have the skills they need to secure good jobs that enable them to provide for their families,” he said.
“We’re working to reduce poverty and homelessness and to bring hope to those who need it most. All of these investments represent our commitment to making life better for all Pennsylvanians, no matter which city or town they call home.”
He said investments in communities helped ensure that the department can achieve its mission of making Pennsylvania a place where people can work smart and live happy.
Nearly 80 Keystone Communities projects and more than 200 Neighborhood Assistance Program projects were approved over the past fiscal year, improving the quality of life for communities across the commonwealth.
Davin said that job creation also remained a priority for the department this year through its economic development and business expansion programs. During fiscal year 18-19, DCED pledged to create more than 11,000 jobs and retained more than 27,000.
The department supported nearly 5,000 projects for a total of nearly $1 billion invested through grants, loans and tax credits. This investment leveraged an additional $1.9 billion in public and private funding.
Consistent with the Wolf Administration’s commitment to building the workforce of the future, Davin said that investing in training Pennsylvania’s workers was another area of focus this year.
Through the department’s many programs offered to employers, he said nearly 25,000 businesses received assistance, and training was provided to almost 94,000 Pennsylvania workers.
In February of 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order creating the Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center.
The Command Center brings an innovative approach to addressing the critical issue of training qualified workers for the jobs Pennsylvania companies need to fill.
By bringing commonwealth, labor and business leaders together, Davin said the Command Center creates an opportunity to address real-time workforce issues with real-time solutions.
The Command Center will also further expand the ongoing collaboration occurring between state agencies, as well as between the administration and the private sector.
In November, Wolf announced the creation of Pennsylvania’s Business One-Stop Shop Registration Checklist. This tool helps small business owners and entrepreneurs more easily access necessary licenses, permits, forms and contact information personalized for the needs of their company in just a few minutes.
Since its inception in 2018, the One-Stop Shop has generated more than 174,000 unique visits to the website and has received critical buy-in and support from partners across the commonwealth like Small Business Development Centers.
Davin said that DCED also continued to invest in Pennsylvania’s manufacturing sector through the Manufacturing PA initiative, which launched in 2018. Since then, more than $11 million in funding has been provided to train more than 1,840 Pennsylvanians in 81 new training programs across the commonwealth.
“Pennsylvania continued to raise its profile throughout the world, exporting more than $650 million in goods, bringing 19 businesses to Pennsylvania, supporting more than 6,000 jobs and bringing in about $46 million in tax revenue.
“Additionally, the Office of International Business Development successfully obtained a $500,000 Small Business Administration grant to support the international business development activities of small- and medium-sized Pennsylvania companies.”
Finally, Davin said that Pennsylvania tourism continued to grow, with more than 33 million hotel rooms being booked throughout the commonwealth, bringing in $4.7 billion in tax revenue and more than $44 billion being spent by visitors.
The Department of Community and Economic Development’s mission is to encourage the shared prosperity of all Pennsylvanians by supporting good stewardship and sustainable development initiatives across our commonwealth.
With a keen eye toward diversity and inclusiveness, department staff act as advisors and advocates, providing strategic technical assistance, training, and financial resources to help Pennsylvania’s communities and industries flourish.
For more information, visit the Department of Community and Economic Development Web site, and be sure to stay up-to-date with all agency news on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
