Cornell President David Skorton will serve as regional co-chair of the Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council, one of 10 such councils Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo launched July 27 to drive local economic development and improve the business climate statewide. Tom Tranter, president and CEO of Corning Enterprises, is co-chair.

Kathryn Boor, dean of Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will be a general member on the 21-member southern tier council. Other members include CEOs, presidents and leaders in business, industry, academia, local government, labor, agriculture, nonprofits and community-based organizations.

The regional councils, which will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, represent an overhaul to New York's approach to economic development, from a top-down development model to a community-based approach that emphasizes regions' unique assets, harnesses local expertise and empowers each region to set plans and priorities.

Through a new consolidated funding application that combines resources from dozens of existing programs, the regional councils will apply for $1 billion in state funding for projects they determine to be part of their regional strategy.

"These regional councils will give businesses, academic institutions and localities the tools they need to revitalize the southern tier's economy and create jobs. We must do all we can to keep businesses and jobs in our state, and today's launch demonstrates that New York is once again open for business," Cuomo said.

"The regional councils will empower individual regions, such as the southern tier, to take charge of their own development and maximize the potential of local resources to address the unique challenges of their business environments," Skorton said.

The councils have been designed partly to encourage business, industry and academic leaders to collaborate on developing technology transfers and to allow new knowledge from universities to play a larger role in driving economies, said Rod Howe, Cornell Cooperative Extension assistant director for community and economic vitality and executive director of the Community and Rural Development Institute.

"The governor is encouraging business, industry, academia and local governments to come together through these councils," Howe said. As with the southern tier council and the Central New York council, "the governor was looking for a president of an engaged university to be one of the co-chairs, along with a key business person," to promote partnerships, Howe added.

The new region-centric economic focus will encourage municipalities to consider their role in regional economies while also encouraging inter-regional collaborations, Howe said. For example, development of the Erie Canal corridor involves as many as five of these regions, which will need to work together to address inter-regional economic drivers, barriers and opportunities to ensure success, he said.

New York state's economic development efforts are managed through dozens of separate state and local agencies. The regional councils will bring together stakeholders in every region of the state to serve as a coordinated point of contact for economic development. Each council will develop a plan for the development of its region. The state will work with the councils to align state resources and policies, eliminate unnecessary barriers to growth and prosperity, and streamline the delivery of government services and programs to help the councils carry out their plans.

The southern tier council is one of 10 regional councils across the state. Others include the capital region, central New York, the Finger Lakes, Long Island, the mid-Hudson, the Mohawk Valley, New York City, the north country and western New York.