ABSTRACT
State economic development agencies have always played an important role in meeting the needs of their businesses and workforces. The states must continually adapt their assistance and change their policies so that they can provide the help necessary to maintain jobs and viable economies. Small business development programs have grown in number and diversity as states have increasingly looked within their own borders for economic development opportunities. As with most economic development programs, the objective for an international trade development program operated by a state development agency is, by and large, to create or maintain jobs. Programs such as the Economic Development Administration Title IX, and the Urban Development Action Grant program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, have been used effectively to help respond to industrial cutbacks and have even underwritten plant conversion projects. Localities enjoy a unique importance, in that economic development actually takes place at the local level.
