Economic Development Strategy
The City's draft Five-Year Economic Development Strategy is ready for review. The Economic Development Strategy:
- Sets a long-term economic vision or "north star" for Vancouver
- Outlines actions that the City will take over the next five years to achieve its goals
- Identifies key measures of success for each goal
- Defines roles and responsibilities for the City and partner organizations
Read the draft strategy and share your feedback below by 11:59 p.m. on March 2, 2025.
View the strategy in HTML form
Download the strategy as a Word document
The strategy aims to align with our region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Plan. This plan is led by the Columbia River Economic Development Council (CREDC). The draft strategy was also informed by:
While the Vancouver City Council will ultimately approve and adopt the new Economic Development Strategy, an Economic Development Steering Committee has helped establish guiding principles, inform our long-term economic vision and provide feedback on actionable initiatives, strategies and investments.
We thank the following steering committee members for the help in creating the draft strategy.
Community Leaders Steering Committee:
Jen Baker, President/CEO, Columbia River Economic Development Council
John McDonagh, President/CEO, Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce
Ron Arp, President, Identity Clark County
Miriam Halliday, Executive Director, Workforce Southwest Washington
Mel Netzhammer, Chancellor, Washington State University – Vancouver
Karin Edwards, President, Clark College
Calen Ouellette, CEO, Clark College
Nicole Davidson Leon, Executive Director, Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber
Paul Burgess, Executive Director, Fourth Plain Forward
Michael Walker, Executive Director, Vancouver’s Downtown Association
Jordan Boldt, Executive Director, Vancouver Farmers Market
Matt Morton, President, Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
Patrick Adigweme, Chair, City of Vancouver Planning Commission
Jay Schmidt, Executive VP & General Manager, Silicon Forest Electronics + Hi Tech Council
Mike Bomar, Chief Economic Strategy Officer, Port of Vancouver
Tracey Fernandez, CFO & Interim CEO, SW Medical Center PeaceHealth
Cameron Hyzer, CFO, ZoomInfo
Marc Esrig, Principal, New BluePrint Ventures + Vancouver Innovation Center
Allie Persitz (Magyar), Chairwoman of the Board, Dynamic Events, Inc.
Julie Harrelson, Partner, Cascade Seed Fund
Charles Swatzell, CEO, Formos
Alan Hwang, Executive Director, Riff + CREDC Board Chair
Lance Killian, Chief Visionary Officer, Killian Pacific
Jason Presser, Director of Government Affairs, East Vancouver Business Association
The City committed to a robust engagement process, which included:
- An online community survey
- Small-group conversations
- One-on-one interviews
- Presentations to community groups
- Meetings with public boards and commissions
Please shared your thoughts on the draft strategy by Feb. 28 below.
