State of Colorado
On Monday, Sept. 29, the Rural Opportunity Office within the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) released Colorado’s first Statewide Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS).
The Statewide CEDS is a five-year strategic action plan that articulates an economic vision and goals for Colorado and was developed with extensive input from communities and economic development partners from across the state.
“Building a strong economy for Colorado’s future requires detailed research, strategy and coordination across local, state and private partners across rural, urban and suburban communities, and that’s what this statewide strategy does. We continue to move forward in spurring economic development and investment in our economy, and I’m excited to see this strategy support this important work,” said Gov. Jared Polis.
“The Statewide CEDS is more than a plan. It is an important tool that will benefit all of Colorado’s 64 counties, including the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes, by helping us align economic development strategies statewide. Today’s milestone lays the foundation to build on local and rural plans, attract more investment, foster collaboration, and create a more vibrant, resilient and prosperous economy across the state,” said OEDIT Executive Director Eve Lieberman.
The 2025 Colorado Statewide CEDS is based on the gold standard for economic development and developed in accordance with U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) guidelines.
With it, Colorado continues its commitment to implement statewide economic development planning that incorporates regional goals and outcomes. CEDS have also been shown to help economic development initiatives attract investment and lead to more consistent, positive outcomes when funding is secured.
Colorado’s 2025 CEDS continues previous commitments to align statewide strategies with regional goals, including Colorado’s Blueprint 2.0 launched in 2015 and CO|Align, a collective initiative to align strategies, reduce redundancies and enhance capacity for economic development efforts across Colorado.
Additionally, over the past two years, the state of Colorado has assisted economic development regions across the state to develop and implement regional CEDS, leveraging the framework created by CO|Align. This marks the first time Colorado’s regions have all completed CEDS, which are currently in implementation.