Business and political leaders from across North Carolina gathered in Greensboro on Wednesday to discuss possible solutions to the state’s growing job crisis.

The North Carolina Chamber announced that it is looking to raise $15 million over the next five years to hire staff and to put together a specific detailed plan addressing the four pillars that are the focal point of the Vision 2030 initiative. The pillars are:

  • Education and talent supply
  • Business climate
  • Entrepreneurship and innovation
  • Infrastructure and growth leadership

Chamber CEO Lew Ebert told WRAL News that no hires have been made yet, but the statewide business group will be hiring a “policy team.”

“The governor wants to hear about it, the General Assembly wants to hear about it,” Ebert said. “They want us to give them solutions for job creation.”

The Chamber helped facilitate a resolution of the state’s unemployment insurance debt crisis, Ebert said, and a similar approach would be applied toward seeking economic growth.

“There are groups on the left and groups on the right,” Ebert said. “Our members represent the common-sense middle. We are committed to finding solutions to these tough problems we face.”

In his speech before the NC Chamber, Gov. Pat McCrory promised major policy announcements in the coming weeks and said he is focusing on five major areas:

  • Tax reform
  • Medicaid reform
  • Economic development and recruitment
  • Transportation
  • Education

McCrory said he has spent his first 11 weeks in office dealing with basic operations, such as a fixing information systems and infrastructure. “We’ve had a serious break down in operations in state government. Before you build the foundation, you fix the cracks in the foundation,” he said. 

Next, McCrory will focus on policy.

He plans to revamp the state Department of Commerce in terms of rebranding the state so North Carolina can become competitive with Tennessee, Florida and Texas, which have no state income taxes.

“We need to move as quick as possible to get people back to work,” he said. “I see our competition getting tougher and tougher and tougher … I’m out to beat them.”

Jack Bailey, a senior executive at GlaxoSmithKline who is based in RTP and is chair of the NC Chamber, said he and other board members met with stakeholders across North Carolina before formulating the Vision 2030 plan. He stressed that it was important that the business community step forward to help political and community leaders find ways of growing the economy.

“People told us they were glad to see the business community stepping up like they have in other states,” Bailey said. But he conceded moving from aspiration to implementation will require the real work to begin.

“Now is time for the heavy lifting,” he said. “Now we have to execute.”

Jim Whitehurst, one of the four people chosen to spearhead the pillars, took time out from preparing for Red Hat’s earnings announcement Wednesday afternoon to stress entrepreneurship and innovation.

“We are entering the golden age of entrepreneurship,” the Red Hat chief executive officer told the crowd of some 600 business and community leaders as well as politicians. But he warned that North Carolina is in a global fight for jobs.

In calling for improvements in education, technology transfer, more emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) as well as TORT reform, tax policy and investment capital, Whitehurst said North Carolinians must realize that “we are in a fight for the future of our economy.”

In an interview later, Whitehurst told WRAL News that he realizes the Vision 2030 plan’s backers “don’t have all the answers. But at least having a plan we can work together now … to put together an agenda and push it forward.”