On September 25, 2009, the Wisconsin Economic Development Association (WEDA), Competitive Wisconsin, Inc., Wisconsin Counties Association  and the charitable research organization Wisconsin Economic Development Institute (WEDI) announced a collaborative economic development study that would be focused on identifying and aligning policy, program and organizations to position Wisconsin and our business community for the global marketplace.  This study's ambitious goal is to build upon the solid foundation in Wisconsin and create a new long-range economic development strategy that position Wisconsin for investment, jobs and growth.
 

The founding partners agree that it is imperative for Wisconsin's future that we conduct a comprehensive analysis of Wisconsin's overall regional, national and global economic development competitiveness. To that end, after a comprehensive Request for Proposal (RFP) process with national and internationally recognized consulting firms, the partners recommended that Deloitte and NKF be the independent third party organizations with the needed expertise to implement this study. The RFP required the consultant have expertise in economic development policy, planning, innovation, industry clusters, comparative market analysis and site selection.

This study will offer recommendations to align and advance local, regional and statewide economic development efforts. The study will build on the excellent economic development research that has already been done by a variety of regional and statewide organizations around Wisconsin. More importantly, it will take information from these individual reports and make solid program and policy recommendations to assist in aligning Wisconsin's economic development policies with its stated goals. It is the hope of the partners that these recommendations will provide guidance in the development of a new bipartisan economic development plan.