Strategic Goals and Objectives

Strengthen Core Industry Clusters While Advancing Economic Diversification

Southeastern New Mexico’s existing economy is powerful because it is rooted in real production. The region produces energy, food, minerals, military readiness, aviation talent, healthcare services, tourism experiences, construction capacity, and skilled labor. These are not abstract assets; they are the foundation of jobs, wages, public revenue, infrastructure demand, and private investment.

At the same time, the region’s greatest strengths also create exposure. Energy-sector concentration, commodity market cycles, workforce shortages, water constraints, infrastructure pressure, housing availability, and competition for skilled labor all affect long-term resilience. Diversification, therefore, should not be framed as moving away from the industries that built Southeastern New Mexico. It should be framed as building outward from them.

The strongest path forward is an asset-based diversification strategy: strengthen the industries that already drive the regional economy, then use those industries to grow supplier networks, adjacent sectors, emerging technologies, and locally owned businesses.

County-Specific Strategic Direction

Chaves County

Chaves County should be positioned as a regional service, agriculture, aviation, healthcare, education, and distribution hub. Roswell’s role as a regional center, ENMU-Roswell’s technical and workforce programs, New Mexico Military Institute’s leadership and junior college capacity, the Roswell Air Center, and the county’s agricultural base create opportunities to strengthen aviation services, value-added agriculture, food systems, healthcare workforce development, light manufacturing, logistics, and entrepreneurship. Chaves’ population decline also makes business retention, youth retention, and quality job creation especially important.

Eddy County

Eddy County should continue to build from its energy, mining, logistics, and industrial base, with Carlsbad and Artesia serving as key economic anchors. The county’s connection to energy production, industrial services, WIPP-related activity, and major freight corridors creates opportunities in specialized industrial services, environmental compliance, water reuse, waste management, logistics, and supplier development. Eddy’s relatively strong wage base should be leveraged into broader local wealth-building, workforce housing, and small business expansion.

Lea County

Lea County should continue to build from its role as a Permian Basin energy powerhouse while expanding into renewable energy, hydrogen-related opportunities, industrial services, logistics, safety training, oilfield technology, and supplier development. Hobbs, Lovington, Jal, Eunice, and Tatum all contribute to an energy-driven regional economy, but the county’s young population also creates a long-term opportunity to connect education, CTE, New Mexico Junior College, CTECH, and employers into a stronger youth-to-career pipeline.

Lincoln County

Lincoln County should build from tourism, outdoor recreation, healthcare, retirement, small business, and quality-of-place assets. Ruidoso, Ruidoso Downs, Capitan, Carrizozo, Corona, and surrounding communities support a mountain economy that connects visitor spending, culture, recreation, entrepreneurship, and livability. Because Lincoln has an older population and a smaller labor force, its diversification strategy should include remote work, healthcare services, senior services, outdoor recreation entrepreneurship, business succession, disaster-resilient tourism, and broadband-enabled small business growth.

Otero County

Otero County should continue to leverage its defense, aerospace, tourism, education, healthcare, and federal asset base. Holloman Air Force Base, White Sands Missile Range, Alamogordo, Cloudcroft, Tularosa, and surrounding areas create a unique intersection of military readiness, aerospace training, outdoor recreation, and community development. Otero’s strategy should focus on defense-adjacent business growth, aviation and aerospace pathways, tourism infrastructure, workforce housing, broadband, and retention of military-connected talent.

Objectives

  1. Support business retention and expansion in established clusters, including energy, agriculture, defense, aerospace, healthcare, education, logistics, tourism, construction, and skilled trades.
  2. Promote diversification that grows from existing strengths, including renewable energy, hydrogen, water technologies, value-added agriculture, advanced logistics, aviation services, defense-adjacent industries, outdoor recreation, and specialized industrial services.
  3. Develop a regional business retention and expansion system that identifies employer needs by county and by cluster.
  4. Strengthen local supplier networks so small and mid-sized businesses can capture more value from major industry activity.
  5. Promote county-specific industry strengths within a shared regional brand that positions Southeastern New Mexico as productive, resilient, and investment-ready.
  6. Use industry cluster data, employer feedback, and workforce analysis to regularly update regional priorities.

Additional Information / Partners / Programs to Leverage

Potential partners include SNMEDD, local governments, chambers of commerce, local economic development organizations, New Mexico Economic Development Department, ENMU-Roswell, ENMU-Ruidoso, New Mexico Junior College, Southeast New Mexico College, NMSU-Alamogordo, New Mexico Military Institute, CTECH, Small Business Development Centers, major employers, industry associations, and regional workforce partners. The New Mexico Economic Development Department identifies business support, community development, tax incentives, and funding opportunities as major areas of state economic development assistance, which aligns with this strategy’s emphasis on business retention, site readiness, industry development, and local capacity-building.