Contact: Bill McCoshen
Executive Director
Competitive Wisconsin, Inc.
(608) 258-8411
Governor’s initiative will create jobs by making it easier for businesses to relocate or expand
MADISON – Leaders of Competitive Wisconsin, Inc. (CWI) applauded Governor Walker’s Ready, Set, Build! program as an important new tool that will help existing Wisconsin businesses expand and new businesses relocate to the state. The program provides a variety of pre-certified, shovel-ready parcels for expansion and building that will help streamline economic development opportunities and eliminate unnecessary delays in the permitting process.
“Ready, Set, Build! grew out of ideas Competitive Wisconsin and others developed as a part of BE BOLD: The Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy during the 2010 Economic Summit Series,” said Scott VanderSanden, president of AT&T Wisconsin and board chair of CWI. “We congratulate the Governor and his administration on their willingness to turn a good BE BOLD idea into a functioning program that encourages swift economic development, and will allow businesses to expand, assist in job creation and help our economy grow.”
Competitive Wisconsin leaders say the Ready, Set, Build! initiative by the Economic and Community Development Division of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation will assist entrepreneurs and established businesses alike by allowing regulators to pre-certify sites, thus eliminating delays in the state and local permitting process. The program promises to encourage business start-up and growth.
“A time-consuming hurdle is removed when businesses don’t have to go through the protracted process of finding a business site and then securing the needed regulatory certification,” said Bill McCoshen, executive director of CWI. “Providing sites around the state gives businesses the choice they need and communities the opportunity to benefit from job creation and economic growth.”
BE BOLD: The Wisconsin Prosperity Strategy involved hundreds of elected officials, business leaders, educators, economic development specialists, small business owners, taxpayers, entrepreneurs and policymakers from around the state who participated in conversations and created a platform for the strategic thinking and discussion necessary to develop a comprehensive plan that combines the “best of the best” in economic development planning and addresses all facets of the state’s current economic challenges and opportunities.
Competitive Wisconsin, Inc. is a nonpolitical consortium of agriculture, business, education and labor leaders in Wisconsin who work together to focus attention on the state’s competitiveness. CWI’s mission is to improve the economic climate of Wisconsin in order to encourage the expansion of existing businesses and enhance the possibility of developing and attracting new businesses.
