Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) is a private, non-profit organization established in 1981 by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Its mission is "to attract, retain, and grow businesses and jobs for the regions of Los Angeles County." The LAEDC was originally formed to facilitate Los Angeles County's industrial bond development program through land development, project financing and marketing activities. Since that time, the organization has grown to encompass a wide range of services, using a broad-based coalition of chambers of commerce, trade organizations, business associations, and government officials. In particular, the LAEDC's conferences, economic forecasts and other professional events, held throughout the year in various locations throughout the Los Angeles County region, provide the business community with a place to interact with each other and individuals from the local schools, government and other constituencies.
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Business assistance services
LAEDC's business assistance services provides business with the following services:
The Kyser Center for Economic Research
Founded by economist Jack Kyser, this division of the LAEDC conducts notable and widely quoted economic and industry research published for the public. The Kyser Center also provides fee-based consulting services to businesses. It focuses solely on the Los Angeles region, which it defines as
Such work is especially valuable because most nationwide economic analysis only goes as far as the county-level, whereas the Kyser Center's data splits Southern California counties into regions. As an example, the Kyser Center divides Los Angeles county into economic zones:
Each of these zones have distinct demographic and commercial characteristics that are relevant for analysis such as land zoning, employment and other statistics.
In recent years, the LAEDC has gained prominence in the national press through quotes from the Kyser Center on matters of regional economics and business.
Recent initiatives
the LAEDC is a founding board member of the Southern California Leadership Council and maintains contact abroad through the World Trade Center Los Angeles-Long Beach (WTCA LA-Long Beach).
The LAEDC is a member of Clean Tech Los Angeles, which in October 2011 founded the LA Cleantech Incubator.