The Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District is working on updating the borough's Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy for 2021 to 2026, to aid in planning for the next five years. This helps in directing policy, obtaining and distributing governmental funding, attracting new businesses to the borough, identifying roadblocks to development and, ideally, bettering the quality of life in our neck of the woods.
Developing this Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy — or CEDS, as you’ll hear it called — has been going on since summer. KPEDD is working with the folks at the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development to facilitate the process of developing goals to pursue for the next five years.
On Jan. 6, KPEDD held an Economic Future Forum over Zoom, where they shared progress on the CEDS and asked for feedback. This week’s Kenai Conversation is an excerpt from that presentation, giving an overview of where the borough’s economy is at now and goals for improvement in the next five years.
