The South County Economic Development Council has developed a business incentive matrix to attract growth for defense-related companies throughout San Diego.
The matrix outlines major incentives that the SCEDC completed while surveying cities, utilities and government entities throughout San Diego County.
Cindy Gompper-Graves, president and chief executive officer of SCEDC, said the matrix is intended to assist companies with expanding and hiring in the San Diego region. Incentives are party of Propel San Diego.
Some of these incentives include fee reductions, rebates, financing opportunities, expedited processing, recycling incentives and employer training reimbursements.
“We did the matrix as a tool for defense related suppliers or contractors who might be looking to expand or build a business,” Gompper-Graves said. “And we want to encourage them to do that in San Diego”
Gompper-Graves said the defense industry is large in San Diego and there is opportunity for it to grow even more.
In San Diego and South County there are several companies that build and repair naval ships, defense companies that work on cyber security to defense contractors.
According to the San Diego Military Advisory Council, which the matrix used data from, more than 340,000 of the region’s jobs were related to the defense industry, or one in every five jobs in San Diego County are somehow related to the military. This represents an increase from last year’s 300,000 jobs as a result of including the Coast Guard and Veterans Administration in this year’s study.
Gompper-Graves said it is important to attract defense-related jobs to South County because of its proximity to military bases.
“Especially in South County, with the military bases that we have in Coronado, in National City and of course in Imperial Beach, we want to make sure that we are supporting those that support our military,” Gompper-Graves said.
The San Diego Military Advisory Council reports that defense-related activities and spending will generate an estimated $50.1 billion of gross regional product for San Diego County in fiscal year 2017, which represents about 22 percent of the region’s total GRP.
“As we look at growing our defense suppliers, that should have a trickledown effect throughout the whole economy,” she said.
The incentives listed in the matrix are part of Propel San Diego- a Department of Defense funded grant initiavtive intented to develop a resillient defense supply chain in the San Diego region.
To view the complete business incentive matrix, visit www.southcountyedc.com.local-incentives.
