Goals for Los Angeles County’s new five-year economic plan. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to take action on a sweeping economic plan that would move the region further into the 21st Century.

The motion, co-authored by board Chairwoman Hilda L. Solis and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, directs county CEO Sachi A. Hamai to evaluate a five-year strategic plan by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. (LAEDC).

The plan maps out a forward-looking strategy for the county with a friendlier business climate, a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship and enhanced education and training to better prepare workers for today’s high-tech job demands.

It incorporates feedback from a business climate survey, more than 500 local leaders and stakeholders and 26 public meetings that were held over a period of six months.

Over the course of the meetings, consensus developed around seven major goals:

•Invest in people to provide greater opportunity

•Strengthen the county’s leading export-oriented industry clusters

•Accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship

•Be more business-friendly

•Remove barriers to critical infrastructure development, financing and delivery

•Increase global connectedness

•Build more livable communities

As part of Tuesday’s motion, Hamai will create a policy committee to work with the county to spur more economic development in the region. Working with LAEDC CEO Bill Allen and other county representatives, she will report back to the board in 90 days with an analysis of the plan and a strategy for implementing it, tracking it and reporting on its progress.

“It is one of my top priorities as chair of the board to help provide for economic development so that in fact we do lift boats, as they say — everywhere,” Solis said.

The report looks to improve high school graduation rates by expanding adult English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and by exposing more minority students to computer science through internship and labor-management programs.

The report also advocates the integration of workplace learning into curriculums at community colleges, technical schools and four-year colleges.

“Part of what we can do through our own capacity here is work in partnership with independent groups, corporations such as the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. and also other entities that are out there doing the hard work of training our potential workforce to be prepared for the 21st Century jobs that we often hear about from employers,” Solis said.