Dan Campbell (202) 720-6483
dacampbe@rdmail.rural.usda.gov
USDA RURAL POVERTY PROGRAM TOPS $1 BILLION IN INVESTMENTS
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2000 –Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced that the Rural Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community (EZ/EC) initiative has topped more than $1 billion in investments during the past five years in some of the nation’s most depressed rural areas. The initiative has empowered rural residents at the grassroots level to implement economic development programs.
“Thanks to these investments, thousands of new jobs have been created, hundreds of new businesses started, thousands of homes built or renovated, and water, sewer and electricity service has been brought to places never before served,” Glickman said.
Glickman cited the following as among the many accomplishments in the EZs/ECs:
The initial seed grants of only $119 million in the 57 rural communities have been multiplied more than eight times. Most of the EZs and ECs, which are concentrated in Appalachia, the South, and Indian reservations, had poverty rates of 25 to 35 percent when selected for the programs.
The EZ/EC program is administered through USDA Rural Development’s Office of Community Development. For more information on the EZ/EC program, visit its website at: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/ocd/index.html, or call (202) 619-7980.
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