Stimulus Funding, Innovation The Focus Of Economic Outlook Discussions
Photo/Shaun Tolson
Panelists debate the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act at an economic forum in Framingham.
Two regional groups recently held economic outlook panel discussions that brought experts together to give their takes on region’s future.
Speakers at the State of Business breakfast sponsored by the Wachusett Chamber of Commerce pointed to the ways that employers are focusing on innovation to keep moving forward, but also to the limits of cutting-edge businesses as an economic driver.
Meanwhile, at the 495/MetroWest Partnership Economic Forum, the discussion turned to the timing and implementation of federal stimulus funding.
“Stimulus dollars are a real thing, but I don’t think they’ve gone as far as we’d all like,” said Paul Leone, senior vice president at Boston-based commercial real estate firm Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC, who was one member of a three-person panel to address the audience. The two other panel members were Robert Martin, vice president of academic affairs at Framingham State College, and Jeffrey Fuhrer, executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
“I’m not sure all the ARRA (American Reinvestment and Recovery Act) money has been invested in ways that can drive the economy,” Martin said.
However, Fuhrer said that the stimulus money carried the economy through a dire period.
“We were scared that we might be slipping into another Great Depression,” Fuhrer said. “People can quibble, but in a crisis like this that is felt around the globe, you want to act vigorously.”
Tales Of Innovation
Ted Lapres, president and CEO of the Clinton-based plastics manufacturer Nypro, told the audience at the Wachusett chamber event that his company is facing its first year-to-year decline in sales. Since the start of the recession, it has frozen salaries and cut the pay of higher-level employees, reduced inventory to improve its cash flow and made other “dramatic cost measures.”
Yet Lapres said Nypro is doing relatively well in some of its more high-tech business. He said the company’s Clinton headquarters is in a stronger position than some of its locations elsewhere in the world because it houses R&D operations, as well as administrative offices that support its manufacturing for the medical devices market.
In the face of global competition, Lapres said, it’s crucial to have good regulatory and quality systems, a strong customer focus and the ability to constantly use new technologies.
Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner has seen a double-digit increase in enrollment this year, but it’s also facing cuts in many of its funding sources, according to Executive Vice President Ann McDonald. She said one of the college’s major strategies is to watch projections of future job growth so its offerings match up with the jobs that students will be able to find when they graduate.
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