The 40-page plan, produced by a team of consultants in partnership with Louisiana Economic Development, bills itself as a blueprint to build the most robust, innovative, and high growth economy in the Southeast.” It also sought to diagnose why Louisiana has struggled to add jobs and what the state can do to stem the flow of residents to other states for better opportunities.
Among the recommendations, the report calls for a new incentive program for businesses that offer jobs with wages above the regional benchmarks; creation of a dedicated fund for site development; an increased focus on rural areas and small businesses; and more support for regional economic development organizations.
The plan offered broad strategies as opposed to specific policy proposals, legislation or funding estimates. But state economic development leaders noted that some initiatives based on the broader plan are already underway.
That includes the creation of a new division at LED called Louisiana Innovation, or “LA.IO” for short, which is overseeing a $50 million venture capital fund focused on boosting homegrown tech companies rather than recruiting new ones from out of state. LA.IO is also developing the Louisiana Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which, as its first projects, will aim to equip 5,000 small businesses across the state with A.I. tools.
“We haven’t been waiting around for a plan,” said LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois, who added that her team has been “building the plane while flying it.”
Louisiana consistently lags behind its peers in key measures of a strong economy, like private sector employment, personal incomes and population growth, the report notes. While other states have balanced investment in both traditional and fast-growing sectors — including life sciences and technology — Louisiana has focused on sectors like energy and process industries, causing the state's economic fortunes to seesaw alongside cycles in those industries.
The report noted that residents are voting with their feet. On balance, around 30,000 people have left Louisiana annually in recent years, and about 40% of those who leave have a bachelor's degree or more.
Landry has made reversing those trends a political priority. In December, he touted the $10 billion investment of Meta into a data center near Monroe as a sign that parts of the tech sector are now seeing the state as a potential place for investment. Earlier this week, he announced at the White House with President Donald Trump that Hyundai would build a $5.8 billion steel mill in Ascension Parish.
The LED report highlights seven priority sectors that it argues are primed for growth and deserve special attention. Those include: energy and process industries; logistics; aerospace and defense; agribusiness; professional services; life sciences; and tech.
The report suggests several goals for measuring success, arguing that Louisiana should aim to have the highest wage growth among Southern peer states; maintain its status has having the top capital expenditures per capita in the nation; and achieve population growth and migration into all regions, among other indicators.
To be sure, Louisiana has numerous competitive advantages, the report notes. The state has a workforce specialized in energy, manufacturing and logistics, and its colleges are producing STEM graduates at a rate that’s on par with other nearby states. It has a high rate of entrepreneurship and it offers some of the cheapest electricity in the region. It also has a comprehensive mix of port, rail, highway and pipeline networks for commerce.
Still, Louisiana faces numerous challenges. It has a high rate of outmigration and ranks 50th among states for the rate of corporate research and development spending. Its transportation infrastructure is crumbling and nearly half of renters are considered rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs.
The strategic plan was commissioned by the Louisiana Economic Development Partnership Board, created last year by the state Legislature as part of a restructuring of LED. It includes 11 private-sector members as well as Bourgeois. The board voted to adopt the plan at a meeting Wednesday.
Bourgeois said the last time Louisiana unveiled a strategy for economic development was under former Gov. Bobby Jindal, with the so-called Blue Ocean approach, which focused on growth in new areas of business rather than expanding the state's existing industries.
The latest strategic plan calls for a “whole-of-government” approach to economic development, with formalized collaboration between cabinet-level agencies. It also recommends LED launch a national communications campaign to convince businesses and “high-potential” talent to relocate or remain in Louisiana.
The next step will be to implement the plan and come up with more exact metrics to track its success, Bourgeois said.
© 2025 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
