“Cluster Strategy” attracts local industries to Hudson Valley region

Mid-Hudson News Network

POUGHKEEPSIE – The governor’s just-announced Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council will be able to take advantage of the groundwork laid by the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corporation, its president said Thursday.

A new multi-pronged approach to local business growth is being employed by regional economic development organizations in New York.
HVEDC President Michael Oates brief the Dutchess County Economic Development Corporation on “cluster strategy” at the county agency’s quarterly meeting at Dutchess Community College in the Town of Poughkeepsie.

“One of the key ways of attracting business into a region is to foster and develop the clusters that already exist,” Oates said. “The main cluster that we’re working on is for the biotech – or life science – cluster.”

Nearly 40 percent of the all of the biotech companies in New York are located within the Hudson Valley region, Oates indicated. “We’ve branded the region, the Hudson Valley, as the epicenter for the biotech industry for the state of NY, and we’re calling it ‘NY BioHud Valley.’”
Cluster strategy involves establishing roundtable discussions between leaders in related commercial fields, together with local officials and private development groups, to better learn what industry requires from government to locate and/or expand regionally. “As an organization, we work with our partners throughout the region, to help market, coordinate activities, and try to attract investment and jobs into those sectors throughout the Hudson Valley,” Oates said.

And the strategy targets much more than biotech clusters. “One of the many beautiful things about the Hudson Valley is that we have a wide variety of growing business sectors, everything from financial services; green tech solar renewable energy; a food and beverage cluster; a flourishing film production; and tourism cluster,” he said.

Recent initiatives from Albany will help kick-start more cluster growth in New York. “We’re working with the economic development councils that Governor Cuomo has announced this week, and we are partnering with them on development of a strategic plan for the Hudson Valley,” Oates said. “We think we’re well positioned to take advantage of the resources that the Governor is putting on the table for economic development.”

Oates added that state representatives sent to similar national meetings will be expanded, to attract investment from beyond New York State. “We’re just going to continue to be aggressive in marketing the region, working with companies to help them come here, expand if they’re already here, and continue to grow.”