In its ongoing initiative to promote the economic development of Dufferin County as a whole, The Greater Dufferin Area Chamber of Commerce will be staging a Marketing Dufferin Summit Sept. 14 at the Orangeville Fairgrounds.

The chamber has been encouraging county municipalities to act as one when it comes to promoting business growth since mid July, when it approached the various councils with a 90-page marketing strategy for the county covering 2010 to 2014.

Marketing Dufferin will focus on promoting the county and all its municipalities. Acting as a portal, or gateway for the county, Marketing Dufferin will launch a website and produce marketing materials that will promote Dufferin County as a great place to do business.

Speaking to Orangeville council July 19, past Chamber president Ron Munro explained that chamber members and other area business people came up with the idea for such a strategy a year ago. “There was a growing sense that Dufferin County was losing out, due to lack of centralized economic development. A number of municipalities don’t have the resources and personnel and cannot fill an economic development role.”

Jay Amer, a Peterborough-based economic development professional who will be the keynote speaker at the Sept. 14 summit, echoed Mr. Munro’s opinions in an interview Wednesday.

“Municipalities, working on a regional basis, have more access to opportunity,” explained Mr. Amer. “Communities who pool their resources can see more success than those operating on an individual basis.”

Currently, only four of the eight municipalities in Dufferin – Orangeville, Shelburne, Mono and Amaranth – have economic development representation.

“Communities that share geography usually share assets,” said Mr. Amer. “It makes sense that they work together.”

“Marketing Dufferin is ready to generate discussion and insight into economic development in Dufferin County,” Mr. Munro said in a press release. “We (Marketing Dufferin Committee) have developed ideas and concepts that we feel are appropriate for the County and will encourage the municipalities to participate.”

The chamber says the concept of Marketing Dufferin is not designed to take away power from existing communities with Economic Development Committees (EDC), but will help enhance their initiatives and provide those municipalities without EDC’s support so that they can promote themselves to the rest of the world.

The summit, which gets under way 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, will unveil the marketing tools that have been designed to support the initiative.

The presentation aims to introduce the concept to stakeholders in the community who will potentially benefit from its ideas, especially those in decision making roles, such as candidates in the upcoming municipal elections.

Meanwhile, a major concern for Dufferin is the continuing exodus of manufacturing plants from the area, and the subsequent loss of well-paying jobs.

While much talk is centered on economic recovery through service-based industries, Mr. Amer still feels there is potential for manufacturing in the county.

“Economic development depends on presenting a good mix (of industry),” said Mr. Amer, “and there’s still room for value-added manufacturing.” He was referring to specialized manufacturing which focuses on high quality and not necessarily high output.

As well, Mr. Amer said, there are opportunities for manufacturing based on exploiting resources.

For example, if you’re in an agricultural area, establish a food-processing plant.

“Canada is still a resource-based country and there’s opportunity to get into the value chain,” said Mr. Amer.