The Alaska Forward Initiative is a program of action that will ultimately provide Alaska’s policy and decision makers with on-going private sector inputs and engagement for sound economic development. Phase I of the initiative, performed in 2009 and early 2010 was an investment in accurate assessment of our current economic situation.
The situational analysis generated by the project research team recognized that Alaska is experiencing accumulating levels of future risk and declining economic resiliency due to:
- Continuing declines in oil production (source of 85% of state revenue)
- Uncomfortable trends in other natural resource sectors (regulations, environmental concerns)
- Aging workforce
- Outmigration
- Weak culture of entrepreneurship
- Remoteness and related infrastructure challenges including high energy and transportation costs
As a business and governmental community, we have examined the problem endlessly. It is time to take action to improve the competitiveness of our key industries in the international economy. Recommendations of the consulting team focused on moving Alaska’s economic development discussion into an industry cluster development model.
Phase II: Implementation
Phase II of the Alaska Forward Initiative implements the recommendations made at the conclusion of Phase I. Researchers identified 11 established traded clusters in Alaska, with an additional 12 seed clusters, or potential clusters to look to for future development. The next step is to facilitate and track active conversation within these clusters.
Learn more about developing and investing in Industry Clusters by following any of the links in the DEVELOPING INDUSTRY CLUSTERS section, to the right.
