Regionalism Boosts South Carolina's Rural Development

By Charles Dexter Ward

South Carolina's rural communities face a great challenge. They must create focused economic development strategies that will improve local economies while addressing quality of life issues.

One strategy that Palmetto State economic developers are finding particularly effective is regionalism, a collaborative effort undertaken by multiple adjacent counties. Individually, these communities lack resources. Together, they share common goals and vision.

Over the past decade, half a dozen regional economic development alliances have evolved across the state. Together, these alliances have become a driving force in the economic development success of South Carolina. Regional alliances now represent more than 60 percent of the state's 46 counties. This collective area that has attracted capital investment of well over $6.3 billion and has garnered more than 36,000 new job announcements since 2000.

"Being rural does not preclude robust economic development or hinder pursuing an aggressive development strategy," said one state economic development official. "Regionalism encourages pooling whatever available resources each member has to offer-leadership, finances, professional networks, industrial parks, transportation routes-with the expectation that such collaboration will improve infrastructure and increase a region's ability to attract more and higher paying jobs. At the same time this strategy helps rural counties create a climate for continued growth and prosperity.

"That growth and prosperity occurs because attracting new investment and jobs does two things simultaneously-reduces the need for a county's work force to commute and increases local wage rates. In addition, it attracts new suppliers and retailers who will create still more jobs, lifting the economy of the entire region still higher."

As a result, more and more of South Carolina's rural community leaders are finding value in focusing on the "big picture," putting aside individual special interests to address the common good. At the same time, leaders are concentrating their efforts on the vision and teamwork necessary to be more competitive for economic development.

They have also discovered that regional cooperation still allows local control if county plans for growth are modified to take the greatest advantage of the power of an alliance. Also, they are realizing that each community's individual plans must become the foundation for -- and directly support -- the strategic plan for the alliance.

More importantly, regionalism enables county leaders to take a proactive stance on economic development even in the face of budget shortfalls. Through collaborative infrastructure development, they are able to position their communities for future investment.

But a number of global companies aren't waiting for the future. Among those that have already invested in rural South Carolina are SKF USA (Aiken), Bayer, Nucor, Amoco Chemical (Berkeley), Koyo Corp. (Orangeburg), Thyssen Steel (Chester), Isola (Fairfield), NanYa Plastics, Tupperware, and Wellman Inc. (Florence/Williamsburg) Takata Restraint Systems, Conbraco, and Wal-Mart (Chesterfield), Perdue Farms and St. Laurent Paperboard (Dillon), Arvin Meritor and Blumenthal Mills (Marion), Sonoco Products and Georgia Pacific (Darlington) and Mohawk Carpet and Weyerhauser (Marlboro).

In the state's Pee Dee region, the Northeast Strategic Alliance (NESA) and the Eastern South Carolina Alliance (ESCA) offer two specific examples of how rural South Carolina counties are successfully embracing the regional approach to economic development.

"Having come from a small county, I realized very quickly that in order for us to compete, we had to join hands as a region," said state Senator Yancey McGill who is also NESA's chairman, "and in northeastern South Carolina, public officials, business leaders and others have been doing just that-pooling assets, energies, and ideas in an ambitious regional development strategy.

Founded in 2001, the ten-county (Chesterfield, Clarendon, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Marlboro, Williamsburg) partnership has launched an aggressive campaign to focus strategic planning and infrastructure development efforts, and then to marshal the financial resources needed to make those goals a reality.

The group is comprised of county and municipal officials, academic leaders, state legislators and local industry executives. The NESA area makes up approximately 25 percent of South Carolina's landmass, has a labor force of about 318,000, and is home to over 1,000 companies.

The region is well served educationally by four technical colleges, two public universities and a private liberal arts college. Interstates 95 and 20, and a network of four-lane highways facilitate convenient ground transportation. Meanwhile, the Port of Charleston, now the nation's fourth busiest seaport, connects firms in northeastern South Carolina to the global marketplace. Year-round access to outdoor sporting and recreational amenities, like those found at world-famous Myrtle Beach tops a long list of reasons Northeastern South Carolina is an ideal place to live and work.

Industries located in the ten member counties stretching from the Atlantic Coast to South Carolina's Pee Dee Region enjoy the advantages of a strategic location, strong work force, and a business-friendly government with innovative incentive programs offered by state and local authorities sharply reducing business costs for new and expanding companies.
"NESA was designed to address vital issues that impact the current economy and the future growth of the region, such as education, labor, tourism, infrastructure and economic development," said the group's Executive Director Ron Chatham.

An initial project, an exhaustive inventory of the region's infrastructure - from airports to broadband connections - has been undertaken to set priorities. In the meantime, NESA is concentrating its advocacy on one key project: the proposed I-73 corridor that will extend from the town of Wallace to Myrtle Beach, then stretch northward to Detroit, connecting this South Carolina region to lucrative industrial and consumer markets along the way.

NESA is also pushing for construction of an International Trade and Convention Center at Myrtle Beach to augment the resort community's reliance on seasonal job opportunities with year-round events, as well as a new international airport to be located somewhere between Horry and Florence counties.
"We know we can't work on everything," said Chatham, whose modest budget is derived from public and private grants and contributions. "So, we're trying to look at the big issues."

He also said that NESA's presence is designed to complement work now underway at the Eastern South Carolina Alliance (ESCA), an older alliance that coordinates marketing and industrial recruitment activities among seven counties that are also NESA members.

"When prospects come to our area, we want to be able to showcase industrial properties that have all the right amenities," says ESCA Director Eric Jones. "We want to demonstrate to them that we've already invested in ourselves. And that we understand successful growth businesses do not recognize county boundaries, but instead make decisions based on the collective strength of the resources available in a given area."

Founded in 2000, ESCA recently unveiled a new branding strategy and list of industry targets. The group has begun mailing promotional materials to prospects in the automotive "after-parts" sector, and will soon be reaching out to site seekers in the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries, as well as firms considering destinations for back-office and call center operations.

"Regionalism offers powerful competitive advantages to individual counties," said Jones, "including greater marketing strength and reach through economies of scale derived from joint efforts to attract industrial development. It's really an optimal solution because the old adage that there are no "solo acts" in economic development is truer than ever in a recovering economy.

"Collaboration, not competition is often a bold initiative, a break with the past for many leaders when they first come into an alliance. It marks a new beginning for them and the area, but the success of the partnership also requires the continuous efforts of all the region's various economic stakeholders," he said.

"In the case of ESCA, the individual counties composing this alliance were well-represented in developing this collaborative venture, and understood how great the potential of this region really is. Eastern South Carolina has unique cultural and economic selling points. We've got the work force, innovative utilities, sewer expansion funding through state grants, and we've got the transportation issues covered."

Jones also described the area's economic development success stories with marquee manufacturers and distributors from Honda to Roche Carolina as excellent "leverage" for future recruitment.

And, in the end, leverage is really what regionalism is all about. With it, and a "big picture" focus, South Carolina's rural counties have built a successful economic development strategy. This strategy shows that the state's rural leaders have the confidence to rely on each other to achieve the real goal of economic development-creating world-class business locations while raising the standard of living for residents in their communities.