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Arkansas commissioners meet in Fort Smith to discuss COVID-19 impact on state economy
Arkansas Economic Development Commission met in person in Fort Smith for the first time since the pandemic began to discuss moving the economy forward post COVID-19. Author: Tiffany Lee Updated: 1:50 PM CDT May 13, 2021
FORT SMITH, Arkansas On Thursday (May 13), the Arkansas Economic Development Commission met in person in Fort Smith for the first time since the pandemic began.
Inside the Chamber of Commerce, representatives from all over the state are discussing plans for moving forward as COVID-19 affects our state s economy.
16 commissioners from around the state met. Some were local and others came from as far as Paragould and Pine bluff.
Katherine Gentry Andrews
The Arkansas Economic Development Commission announced Thursday that it has established a new Small Business and Entrepreneurship Division and named Katherine Andrews to lead it.
Andrews, who has been a project manager with AEDC s Business Development Division since 2016, will serve as director of small business and entrepreneurship development, effective June 1.
In her new role, she ll be responsible for guiding AEDC s efforts to assist, champion and promote small businesses and entrepreneurs. The division will also work to identify and implement best practices to increase entrepreneurial activity in Arkansas. It will offer resources that are currently offered through the AEDC s existing Business Development, Science and Technology, and Minority and Women-owned Business Divisions.
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Winrock International and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission launch Opportunity Arkansas, a website with information about investing in Opportunity Zones.
The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created Opportunity Zones as economic development and job creation tools for distressed communities. Governors of each state nominated low-income census tracts to become Opportunity Zones, certified by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury through the Internal Revenue Service.
Once an area is designated an Opportunity Zone, new investments in that community qualify for preferential tax treatment. In Arkansas, 85 census tracts were certified as Opportunity Zones.
The Opportunity Arkansas website is an online source for citizens, community leaders, investors and others to learn about, search for and submit Opportunity Zone projects in Arkansas. The site is funded by the Delta Regional Authority and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
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Drax Group of Selby, United Kingdom, a sustainable biomass production and supply company, announced Thursday that it will begin building the first of three new satellite pellet plants in Arkansas later this month.
In total, the company said it will invest $40 million and create about 30 new direct jobs in Arkansas.
The three plants will be located at sawmills and are expected to produce about 120,000 metric tons of sustainable biomass pellets a year from sawmill residue.
The company aims to increase supplies to its power station in the U.K., which has become the largest decarbonization project in Europe after being converted to use sustainable biomass instead of coal. Drax s strategy is to increase self-supply to 5 million tons by 2027; it is also working toward being carbon negative by 2030.