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Eastern Region

The Eastern Region tempts visitors with scenic beaches, historic villages, and spectacular nature spots.

The infrastructure landscape of this region varies widely — from expanding military bases to a deep-water port, from the North Carolina Global TransPark with the longest commercial runway between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Ga., to the third-largest university in the UNC system. The economic opportunities are also diverse: advanced manufacturing, biopharma/life sciences, tourism, marine trades, and defense, as well as agriculture, and value-added food processing.

In response to the rapidly changing world economy, the Eastern Region and its partners are successfully developing innovative training programs to meet the ever increasing demands for workers with higher skill levels. At the same time, the region's Military Growth Task Force is leading the planning effort to accommodate rapid residential and military growth.

Over the years, Golden LEAF has awarded grants to support the region’s education initiatives, infrastructure improvement and development, industrial site development and certification, equipment purchases for production and training, as well as healthcare, agriculture and business development.

“We can thank Golden LEAF for enabling Lenoir Community College to be a Regional Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing. We have trained employees from Lenoir, Greene, Pitt, Jones, Craven, Onslow, Wayne and Beaufort counties.” - Bobby Merritt, Director of Industrial Training, Lenoir Community College