TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to contact Governor Brown to request that the Specialist from the Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) assigned to Los Angeles assist the City in attracting, expanding and retaining businesses and in developing the capabilities to be an iHub.
DISCUSSION
Governor Brown has named three field specialists to the California Business Investment Services branch of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz http://business.ca.gov/AboutUs.aspx). These specialists are charged with developing efforts to aid San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area and San Diego in attracting, expanding and retaining businesses. Go-Biz is the state office dedicated to serve as California's single point of contact for economic development and job creation efforts. GO-Biz offers a range of services to business owners including: attraction, retention and expansion services, site selection, permit streamlining, clearing of regulatory hurdles, small business assistance, international trade development, assistance with state government, and much more.
GO-Biz also administers the state Innovation Hub (iHub) program which includes 12 iHubs stretching from Chico to San Diego. These regional innovation clusters bring together government, academia, and business to further enhance California's entrepreneurial ecosystem thru the promotion of innovation as a community building and job creation tool. In 2011, three of the 12 iHubs opened their first Innovation Incubators. Long Beach is not yet listed as one of the iHubs.
Long Beach continues to experience high unemployment and our job base needs to be expanded beyond its current major employers of government, education and healthcare. Long Beach would greatly benefit from the Governor's assistance, particularly in directing the Specialist from Go Biz assigned to the Los Angeles area to assist the City in attracting, expanding and retaining businesses and in developing ...
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