The mild climate, natural beauty, historic charm, and gracious lifestyle of New Bern make New Bern a desirable place for living and working. The area provides all residents with an outstanding medical center and private physician network, convenient access to all forms of transportation, award-winning schools, lifelong learning opportunities, and a thriving economy with job opportunities and reasonable cost of living.

Small-business owners find that the growing population and cost of doing business in the New Bern area create a favorable climate for growth and expansion. Large business and industry find the area attractive because of the reasonable cost of operations and readily available well-prepared labor force.

The New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce seeks to work as a liasion between area residents, business owners, government, and industries to promote positive growth and economic expansion and to enhance the quality of life and work for all.

 

For Craven County Labor Market Statistics, follow this link.

 

What should New Bern look like in 2030?

January 2008, Beth Atkins, 2008 Chair of the Chamber Board, formed the Vision Committee with the goal of starting and sustaining a conversation among its members, and in the community, regarding what we want New Bern to be like in the future. From that conversation the Chamber could determine what the members’ visions were and use those visions as support for decision-making and advocacy going forward.

From a survey of members, there were six common themes about which our members indicated various policies or specific projects they would like to see developed in our area in the future and for which they would like us to advocate. Six focus groups were formed with a facilitator for each group. The focus groups were a well-balanced representation of the community. Participants were volunteers who were required to be, or work for, members of the Chamber. The focus group’s categories were: Environment, Business Development, Entertainment, Retail Growth, Transportation, and Five Points and Greater Broad Street. They were asked to tell us their visions for our community for each theme over the next thirty years. These visions were presented to the City of New Bern’s aldermen, the Craven County commissioners, and various other entities that are related to the thread of each focus group.

New Bern is at a crucial growth period; smart advocacy is critical to insure that the needs of the community are met through comprehensive planning. The Vision Committee hopes that you will take the time to review the visions of these focus groups.

Focus Groups:

Retail Focus Group's Presentation

Five Points and Greater Broad Street

Environmental Stewardship

Business Development

Entertainment

Transportation