Mission & Goals

La Paz Economic Development Corporation is a Public-Private partnership
providing Economic Development Services through-out the La Paz County regional area

Mission Statement

The Mission of the LPEDC is the development of economic wealth for the well-being of our inhabitants through sustainable improvements in our standard of living.

Goals

1. To provide a county-wide professional economic development organization involving all interested public and private organizations.
2. To increase employment by retention, recruitment and expansion in the retail sector
3. To enable economic diversity through attraction, expansion and retention of industrial, manufacturing and agricultural related employers
4. To promote sustainable environmental stewardship
5. To provide educational economic development opportunities
   • Workforce Development
   • Leadership Academy
6. To promote county-wide communication and coordination regarding issues affecting economic development
   • Infrastructure
   • Housing
   • Telecommunications
   • Health Care
   • Education
   • Beautification
   • Recreation
7. To implement a world class website to provide accessible comprehensive information regarding living, working and doing business in La Paz County, Arizona

Economic Development Vs Community Development

Economic development means different things to different people, but. economic development is not community development. Community development can be defined as “a process for making a community a better place to live and work”. Economic development is purely and simply the creation of wealth in which community benefits are created. Economic development is a concerted effort on the part of the responsible governing body in a city or county to influence the direction of private sector investment toward opportunities that can lead to sustained economic growth. On a broad scale, anything a community does to foster and create a healthy economy can fall under the auspice of economic development.

However, in many cases the EDC works closely with the organizations that focus on community development. From a public perspective, local economic development involves the allocation of limited resources – land, labor, capitol and entrepreneurship in a way that has a positive effect on the level of business activity, employment, income distribution patterns, and fiscal solvency. Sustained economic growth can provide sufficient incomes for the local labor force, profitable business opportunities for employers and tax revenues for maintaining an infrastructure to support this continued growth.

Today’s economic development professionals are trying harder than ever to define their field in terms that are more concrete and salient to policymakers, the public, and other professionals.