PASCO COUNTY, Fla. -- Bill Cronin, president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, was recently elected to the board of directors for the International Economic Development Council for 2020.

  • Pasco EDC President & CEO Bill Cronin elected to IEDC Board of Directors
  • IEDC is largest organization of its kind
  • IEDC Leadership Summit 2020 coming to Tampa in February

Cronin said the IEDC is the accreditation agency for the industry and makes sure economic development organizations are following best practices and industry standards. According to the non-profit's web site, the IEDC has 5,000 members and is the largest organization of its kind. Cronin said it's important that Florida is represented on the board.

"There's over 16,000 agencies in the United States that are competing for business. Florida, historically, was not as active in the recruitment side because we couldn't go after some of those big manufacturing projects and things like that because of environmental concerns," Cronin said. "Now, we clearly are because of things like advanced manufacturing, clean technology, workforce."

Working to spark interest in Pasco and the Tampa Bay region is nothing new for Cronin and the EDC. According to the organization's 2018-2019 Annual Report, the Pasco EDC went on two foreign domestic investment missions in the past year and had 12 meetings with foreign companies.

Cronin also made several visits abroad to places like Japan, China, and France on behalf of the EDC and Global Tampa Bay. Through GTB, the Pasco EDC works with the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation and Pinellas County Economic Development to try to bring international business to the area.

"Other people's money coming into our region from overseas or elsewhere is much better than us recirculating that money locally," Cronin said.

Cronin said while several projects with foreign companies are in the works, details won't be revealed until they're finalized.

According to the Pasco EDC's annual report, a GTB trade mission to Panama City that included regional partners like Port Tampa Bay and the Tampa International Airport resulted in $7.35 million in estimated export sales. A mission to Colombia put local economic leaders in touch with companies interested in expanding to the United States, including a cheese distributor and coffee roaster. The report also states that communication is ongoing between the Pasco EDC and companies in Japan following a mission to Tokyo.

In addition to drawing foreign business and investments here, Cronin said local companies are able to go on trade missions with the county organizations.

"We'll help do matchmaking with prospective buyers of your goods or services or representatives, and we use the embassies and the American chambers abroad to help us vet those potential buyers," he said. 

Cronin said the Pasco EDC adopted its new three-year strategy this week which will continue to focus on marketing the region as a place to do business both locally and internationally.