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Reginald Speight

Assistant Secretary for Rural Economic Development at the North Carolina Department of Commerce; former USDA Rural Development State Director for North Carolina and guest on Golden LEAF Critical Conversations.

Oct 7, 2026

12:59
When an economic development opportunity emerges in a rural community, how do Commerce, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, local economic developers like Scott, and partners like Golden LEAF, how do we all work together to help a community compete for that project? And do you have a good example that you might could talk about that, that utilized those partnerships?
13:20
Let me say first and foremost, and this is something that I tout in the different places that I go when people ask about the partnership, and certainly Golden LEAF and Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the economic development entities, USDA are all partners.
13:34
And I say that it is a true partnership.
13:37
And when I say that, and I tell them every Tuesday morning we convene and we have conversations about potential projects that are coming to the state of North Carolina, what some of those incentives are, what those incentives can be, and we're all listening for what opportunities we can possibly utilize from our particular portfolios and how we can leverage the incentives for those potential businesses that are coming to the state.
14:02
The...
14:02
It doesn't end there.
14:03
It is an ongoing conversation that we have.

20 MINS LATER

34:01
[laughs]

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