News Release

INDIANAPOLIS — While Indiana has built one of the most competitive business climates in the country the last few decades, the state must be courageous enough to identify its shortcomings and bold enough to tackle them.

That’s the mindset behind the Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s comprehensive new playbook for the state. Indiana Prosperity 2035 – A Vision for Economic Acceleration is the organization’s third iteration of a decades-long initiative coordinated through the Indiana Chamber Foundation.

The objective is to provide a roadmap to drive growth, transformation and success for Hoosiers and their enterprises, says Indiana Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar.
“It’s worth stressing that Indiana Prosperity 2035 is more than an update. It’s a new vision and an
acceleration to push Indiana’s economy to even greater heights. Achieving the goals in the plan will
benefit all Hoosiers, both businesses and citizens alike.”

The plan was developed through 18 months of work with a volunteer task force, comprised of
researchers, issue and policy experts, business leaders and coalition partners – and led by Larry
Gigerich, executive managing director of Ginovus in Fishers and a nationally recognized leader in
economic development.

Indiana Prosperity 2035 is organized around six pillars with a total of 31 goals integrated among those
policy areas. The pillars in the plan include:

• Workforce – A focus on increasing the value Hoosiers place on education and continual improvement in skills in an ever-changing economic and jobs environment; significantly increasing attraction and
  retention of talent to the state; and increasing the labor force participation rates of working-age Hoosiers.
• K-12 Education – Significant, arguably dramatic increases in the proficiency of Indiana students in
  math and language arts; expanding pre-K educational programs; increasing educational opportunities and achievement for minority students; and addressing the serious problems in smaller schools and districts around the state.
• Economic Growth, Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Preserve and enhance Indiana’s strong
  business and regulatory climate; continue to drive expansion in high tech industries and the
  implementation of new technologies in our economy; significantly improve the state’s business start-up ratings, particularly for minority entrepreneurs; and move the state to one of the most productive for workers and enterprises in the nation.
• Superior Infrastructure and Energy – Investments are necessary to continue to improve the state’s
  infrastructure to not only meet current needs, but to strategically position the state and regions within
  the state for economic development opportunities and the implementation of new technologies.
• Quality of Place Strategies – Talent attraction and retention are critical in this economy and even
  more so in the rapidly evolving one of the future. Promote, invest and implement regional partnerships
  around quality of place investments; lead the Midwest in population growth and stabilize in middlesize communities; improve air and water quality; drive access to affordable housing.
• Healthy, Prosperous Communities and Citizens – Tackle the state’s very poor health and welfare
  ratings by reducing smoking, obesity and substance abuse crises; improve access to quality public
  health services; contain health care costs; and increase the “health” of the state’s democratic
  institutions through greater civics education and engagement by people in their communities.

The Indiana Prosperity 2035 plan covers a wide array of important issues and opportunities for
Indiana, but it also focuses on identifying key needs and shortcomings for the state as part of a
strategy to advocate for aggressive action and continual improvement.

“Currently, Indiana ranks as one of the best states to locate and operate a business, but its small
business start-up rates lag much of the nation. In the last decade, productivity in the state’s advanced
industries has lagged and fallen below the national average,” Brinegar says. “Indiana also is the state
most at risk to industry and job disruptions from automation and artificial intelligence transitions.
Those are all challenges that can and must be met head on.” Brinegar stresses that while addressing all areas in the plan is necessary, a particular emphasis is on significant improvements in the state’s workforce and education systems.

“If Indiana excelled in addressing every other goal outlined in this plan and failed to make significant
progress on the workforce and K-12 education goals, we are doubtful that Indiana’s economy will hold
its place – let alone accelerate at the pace of improvement necessary,” he says. “The state’s relatively low educational attainment rate should be a red alert regarding its ability to evolve and succeed in a rapidly changing, talent-based economy.” Brinegar further relays the plan seeks a dramatic shift in thinking towards regional strategies in economic development, infrastructure, education, workforce strategies and more.

Additionally, he notes how intertwined raising Indiana’s quality of place rankings is with talent attraction and economic development opportunities.

“We need to expand our focus, planning and investment in innovative quality of place initiatives to
create the communities and spaces that people want in where they live, work and stay.” Brinegar concludes, “As was the case with our prior two visioning plans, Indiana Prosperity 2035 will
permeate much of our organization’s work. Not only will it guide the Indiana Chamber’s advocacy and
program development efforts, but it was designed to provide a variety of new goals and opportunities
to engage with various stakeholders across the state.”

Full details of Indiana Prosperity 2035 are available at http://www.indianachamber.com/2035.

Lead investors in the work of the Indiana Chamber Foundation are Duke Energy, the Garatoni-Smith
Family Foundation, Indiana American Water, Indiana Michigan Power and NIPSCO.