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Ecuador hosted the 15th America’s Competitiveness Exchange (ACE) from November 13-17, convening leaders from more than 20 countries and a diverse array of international organizations.

More than 20 years ago, Harlan Majors, the mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, observed that “our best industry by far is the Choctaw Nation. They employ not only their own people but ours, too. It has never been as good as it is now ... Our economy depends on them.”

Through President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARPA), the Economic Development Administration (EDA) distributed $750 million to 185 grantees in regions hard hit by declines to the travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industries. Awards are currently funding a variety of initiatives designed to accelerate the recovery of visitor-based local economies with projects that include development of new park space, construction of bike trails, enhancement of cultural tourism amenities, and improvements to historic neighborhoods.

With a combined capital base of more than $1 billion, Economic Development Administration-capitalized Revolving Loan Funds (RLF) provide a critical source of gap financing to businesses that cannot otherwise access capital through a traditional lender. Now, a new initiative is set to provide enhanced opportunities for cooperation and collaboration among EDA’s nationwide network of approximately 400 RLF operators.

Alejandra Y. Castillo is the Assistant Secretary of Commerce. As the head of EDA, she is responsible for fulfilling the bureau’s mission of leading the federal economic development agenda. As part of this, she is working to promote economic development in those communities traditionally underserved, including Tribal nations.

Through President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the Economic Development Administration awarded more than $540 million to support Indigenous communities — including federally recognized Tribes, Alaskan Native Villages, and public and private sector organizations serving Native Pacific Islanders — as they rebuild and recover from the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

November is National Entrepreneurship Month, and we celebrate all American entrepreneurs as we reflect on how we support and enable entrepreneurship. As technology innovators and entrepreneurs face their unique challenges and opportunities, EDA and the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE) are committed to learning from the entrepreneurial experience and to continue to evolve our program design and delivery to accelerate technologies as entrepreneurs take them from the lab, to the marketplace, and into our lives.

This week, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), in partnership with the Argonne National Laboratory, announces the launch of the Economic Development Capacity Index (EDCI), a web-based, publicly accessible dashboard designed to assist economic development practitioners in answering the question: “How did an individual community’s capacities change over time due to EDA support?”