One East Kentucky's Colby Kirk addresses the Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce membership at the April 9 Lunch and Learn event.
The Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce held a Lunch and Learn on April 9 featuring guest speaker, Colby Kirk, president and CEO of One East Kentucky.
There were networking opportunities over lunch catered by Moe’s and the meeting was attended by several members of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, as well as representatives of Big Sandy Area Development District and Eastern Telephone & Technologies, according to a statement.
Kirk began his presentation by explaining the origins of One East Kentucky, how it was established under the Southeast Kentucky Chamber, later growing into its own entity. He outlined the three main strategic initiatives of One East Kentucky, which are industry recruitment and retention, capacity building, and strategy development.
In terms of industry recruitment, Kirk said, One East Kentucky is engaging with international investors and businesses seeking to expand into the U.S. market. One East Kentucky wants to market the region’s industrial sites to foreign investors in countries like South Korea and Japan to encourage investment in Eastern Kentucky.
One East Kentucky is working on software that will be hosted on their website later this year and will be able to show on an interactive map all industrial sites in the region.
Kirk said this software will be able to create custom listings for each site and can show a virtual building demonstrating to investors what the site could potentially look like.
Kirk also discussed the potential in Martin County for an incubator for foreign direct investment, where several businesses that are gaining their foothold in the U.S. can share office space and warehousing facilities. One East Kentucky sees downtown revitalization as important as industry recruitment to economic development, Kirk said.
Recently, six cities in Eastern Kentucky have been approved for funding to receive strategic planning for downtown revitalization: Pikevill, Inez, Prestonsburg, Hazard, Whitesburg and Jenkins.
Colby explained that One East Kentucky’s work is vital to this region by highlighting the fact that since the COVID-19 pandemic, 95 percent of all jobs incentivized in Kentucky are outside of Eastern Kentucky. He noted that the communities where the least number of jobs are being announced are those with the highest levels of unemployment and persistent poverty.
Kirk proposed a solution by allowing for increased tax incentives for investing in the region, and lowering the incentive in areas where there is already an abundance of jobs.
“We’re so grateful to Colby for taking the time to speak for us today,” said Katie Belt, programs and media manager for the chamber. “His commitment to the betterment of Eastern Kentucky is inspiring and the work he and One East Kentucky does is vital to this region. The Chamber is excited to continue to support these efforts.”
Southeast Kentucky Chamber members can view a recording of the presentation, and a selection of past presentations, by logging into the Member Information Center at business.sekchamber.com/login.
