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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Chamber of Commerce updates Indiana Vision 2025

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce recently published the June update for its Vision for 2025 project.

The Indiana Vision for 2025 started in 2012 with the objective of providing the state with a list of social and economic goals to achieve by 2025.

This isn’t the Chamber’s first foray into a vision plan. At the start of the century, the group created a plan for 2010. Unsatisfied with the progress, the Chamber decided to create another plan, one intended to be far more comprehensive and
ambitious.

The Chamber of Commerce recruited 24 business leaders from across the state, and together, the two groups spent nearly two years crafting an outline and establishing the project’s mission, which reads: “Indiana will be a global leader in innovation and economic opportunity where enterprises and citizens prosper.”

Cameron Carter, vice president of Economic Development and Federal Affairs at the Chamber, was appointed project manager.

“We formed a task force, consulted issue experts and talked about what really drives prosperous economies like we have in Indiana,” Carter said. “The purpose of this project is essentially to increase the prosperity of Hoosiers across the board. That’s the reason we developed the plan.”

The plan, which took a year and a half to create, is divided into four sections: outstanding talent, attractive business climate, superior infrastructure and dynamic and creative culture. Each section, or “driver,” contains several initiatives and highlights areas that need improvement.

“We identified four key drivers and provided a list of goals for each driver,” Carter said. “Overall, these goals are ambitious.”

In the June update, areas where the Chamber noticed setbacks and improvements are highlighted.

Under the section devoted to the state’s business climate, there’s an addendum that notes the passing of the right-to-work statute by the Indiana Legislature in 2012, a primary goal of the project.

The majority of goals in the Vision for 2025 aren’t political, like increasing college graduation rates or lowering obesity levels. But Carter said he has learned that any topic, no matter how nonpartisan it might seem, can fall victim to the politicization process.

“We have seen topics get pretty political,” Carter said. “For example, local smoking ordinances and statewide smoking bans can generate some political discussions. There has been a lot of politicization concerning public education, as well.”

Carter went on to note that politicization should be expected any time there is interaction with the policy-making process.

“We are far less interested in politics at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce than we are good public policy,” he said. “The political arguments are the means to a given end, not the end itself.”

The Vision for 2025 is a challenging project, and while some goals have already been met, there is still a significant amount of work left to be done, Carter said.

“We’re making good progress and achievements, but challenges remain,” he said. “We purposefully put together a lot of stretch goals. Even if we fall short of one goal, it still works to Indiana’s advantage.”

Russell Smith

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