This week, the Rural Opportunity Office within the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) released a draft of the 2025 Colorado Statewide Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). This statewide CEDS is a five-year strategic action plan that articulates an economic vision and goals for Colorado. The release is the culmination of dedicated, long-term collaboration across the state to develop regional strategies that served as the foundation for this comprehensive plan. The public comment period is open and runs through July 5, 2025. The public comment form is available on the Colorado Statewide CEDS webpage.
“By benefiting all of Colorado’s 64 counties, including the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Tribes, this important tool will help us align economic development strategies and funding statewide to attract more investment, build on local plans, foster collaboration, and create a more vibrant, resilient and prosperous economy for everyone in Colorado,” said OEDIT Executive Director, Eve Lieberman.
The 2025 Colorado Statewide CEDS is based on the gold standard for economic development and developed in accordance with U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) guidelines. With it, Colorado continues its commitment to implementing statewide economic development planning that incorporates regional goals and outcomes to align economic development strategies across the state and foster collaboration. CEDS have also been shown to help economic development initiatives attract investment and lead to more consistent, positive outcomes when funding is secured.
“Sustained economic growth results from long-term dedication and collaboration. A plan like the Colorado Statewide CEDS ensures that partners across the state are working together and moving in the same direction. We are grateful to the many state and regional partners who brought a wide range of expertise, experience, and insights from every corner of Colorado to this process,” said Rural Opportunity Office Director Meridith Marshall.
Colorado’s 2025 CEDS continues previous commitments to align statewide strategies with regional goals, including Colorado’s Blueprint 2.0 launched in 2015 and CO|Align, a collective initiative to align strategies, reduce redundancies and enhance capacity for economic development efforts across Colorado. Additionally, over the past two years, the State of Colorado has assisted economic development regions across the state to develop and implement regional CEDS, leveraging the framework created by CO|Align. This marks the first time Colorado’s regions have all completed CEDS, which are currently in implementation.
About the Rural Opportunity Office
The Rural Opportunity Office (ROO) supports Colorado’s rural communities, economic development offices, business support organizations, and small businesses by connecting them to relevant OEDIT, State and partner programs to work toward a resilient future. The office consists of a director and Rural Opportunity Representatives that serve rural communities across all of Colorado. Each representative lives within the region of the state that they support.