TRIDEC: A unifying voice for vibrant economy

The Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC) is a unifying voice that stimulates and sustains a vibrant regional economy by fostering economic growth and prosperity. Our non-profit corporation focuses on fulfilling this mission by working in three strategic objective areas:

Economic Diversification

• Attracting companies that provide family-wage jobs and generate new wealth in the community.

• Championing a business climate and quality of place that removes barriers and enables the success of existing businesses and helps them create new jobs.

• Supporting a Tri-City economy that stimulates new ideas, attracts and retains talent and supports a thriving entrepreneurial community.

Federal Advocacy

• Aggressively advocating for programs and funding that lead to continued growth of world-class research and development activities at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

• Aggressively advocating for the policies and funding needed to accelerate cleanup and reduce risks at the Hanford Site.

• Actively pursuing new federal and non-federal missions that leverage the highly skilled workforce at PNNL and Hanford.

Creative Leadership

• Providing creative leadership for the community on issues of economic importance to the Tri-Cities.

• Working closely with our regional economic development partners, including cities, counties, ports, utilities, area chambers of commerce, Visit Tri-Cities and higher education institutions to facilitate the greater mission of economic development. TRIDEC has been focused on economic development and diversification since 1963 and has a 42-member Board of Directors, including elected officials from all of the cities, counties and ports in the Tri-Cities, as well as representatives from industry, health care and higher education. TRIDEC is designated by Benton and Franklin counties as their Associate Development Organization (ADO), meaning it is the primary organization responsible for economic development in both counties.

In 2019, our metropolitan statistical area (MSA) labor force grew by 4.9% over the previous year, while Washington grew at 3.5% during the same period. The leading industries that created jobs last year included public education, healthcare, agriculture, construction and manufacturing.

In 2020, TRIDEC’s key initiatives include:

• Workforce

To ensure continued economic growth in the Tri-Cities, it will be critical to maintain and grow the availability of our skilled workforce. This issue will only accelerate as a large percentage of the current workforce is nearing retirement age.

TRIDEC is working with our partners in government, education and other non-profits to increase the size of our skilled workforce. The goal is to connect local citizens, beginning in high school, with the training and/or education they need to qualify for good paying careers that align with local employer needs.

• Federal Advocacy

As described above, TRIDEC will continue to work closely with our congressional delegation to ensure that both critical research at PNNL and Hanford cleanup are funded appropriately in the federal budget. We will also continue to advocate for keeping the Lower Snake River Dams intact and operating. These dams are critical to our region’s economy, providing essential infrastructure for agricultural irrigation and transportation as well as reliable, affordable and carbon-free electrical generation.

• TRIDEC’s National Marketing

TRIDEC is the lead organization for our region’s response to economic development opportunities, whether received by TRIDEC directly or through the Washington State Department of Commerce.

Our proactive marketing is focused on target industries, including agriculture and food processing, advanced manufacturing and energy-related companies. In 2020, we will actively work to attract businesses in these key industry sectors to our community. In addition, we will attend trade shows and networking events with leaders in these target industries while also supporting home-grown entrepreneurial startup companies.

Now beginning our 57th year, TRIDEC looks forward to collaborating with all of our partners to continue moving the Tri-Cities forward.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "TRIDEC: A unifying voice for vibrant economy."