Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)

A Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is designed to bring together the public and private sectors to diversify and strengthen regional economies by creating an economic roadmap.

The CEDS should analyze the regional economy, serve as a guide for establishing regional goals and objectives, develop and implement a regional plan of action, and identify investment priorities and funding sources. A CEDS integrates a region’s human and physical capital planning in the service of economic development. Integrated economic development planning provides the flexibility to adapt to global economic conditions and fully utilizes the region’s unique advantages to maximize economic opportunity for its residents by attracting the private investment that creates jobs for the region’s residents.

A CEDS must be the result of a continuing economic development planning process developed with broad-based and diverse public and private sector participation, and must set forth the goals and objectives necessary to solve the economic development problems of the region and clearly define the metrics of success. Finally, a CEDS provides a useful benchmark by which a regional economy can evaluate opportunities with other regions in the national economy.