Indiana Economic Development Investment Strategy

In a year when Indiana at times led the nation in job losses, Hoosier leaders frantically launched more job creation and economic development initiatives in 2003 than at any time in the state's history.

Most of the burst focuses on helping entrepreneurs start and expand their businesses rather than trying to attract big, expensive projects like auto plants, an analysis by The Star shows.

Experts say the more than 21 initiatives -- ranging from technology parks to a venture capital fund -- far outnumber the nationally recognized revitalization efforts Indiana started in the early 1980s to combat job losses caused by the Rust Belt recessions.

All told, in 2003 more than $150 million was plowed into building capacity to allow the replacement of the 160,000 jobs the state has lost since 2000. And the initiatives might help Hoosiers regain earnings that matched the national average in 1970 but fell behind by $4,851 per job by 2000.

While it's far too early to tell if the initiatives will pay, Indiana gets high marks for trying a variety of ideas and by focusing on entrepreneurship, which generates most new jobs, said Don Iannone, a Cleveland-based economic development consultant.

"It's an extraordinary effort on Indiana's part," said Iannone, who works in Indiana and several other states. "It's a larger-scale effort than what I see in other places."

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