Innovate Arkansas.

BIT BY BIT, ARKANSAS APPEARS to be working its way into building the base it needs to develop a healthy economy for the 21st century. The latest move came last week with the startup of Innovate Arkansas.

Winrock International launched the private, not-for-profit business entity, which will develop and manage a state technology commercialization initiative for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Funding for Innovate Arkansas comes from the state.

Innovate Arkansas, headed by Tom Dalton, a former Little Rock city manager and former director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, has a goal of building knowledge-based companies that pay wages of at least 150 percent of the state average.

Modeled on the i2E (innovation to enterprise) Inc. program in Oklahoma, it will seek to find independent emerging technology-based entrepreneurs, university research facilities and existing technology companies and provide assistance to advance them.

Innovate Arkansas hopes to help technology-based firms by accelerating the commercialization process; creating an environment that supports technology-based businesses; facilitating partnerships between firms, Arkansas' universities and economic development organizations; helping firms obtain early-stage capital; providing mentoring services and expert assistance in technology, business, organizational management and marketing; and helping with legal and intellectual property matters.

Winrock has developed a team of state resources for the project, including the University of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas State University, the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, venture capital firms, chambers of commerce, economic development entities, small-business development centers and other businesses.

(Full disclosure: Winrock has retained Arkansas Business Publishing Group's Flex360 Web development firm to set up Innovate Arkansas' Internet site, which will launch this spring.)

About 50 companies have expressed an interest, and the program is near to identifying its first 10 clients.

AEDC believes, and we agree, that by helping startup companies and entrepreneurs the state can achieve a critical mass of technology-oriented companies and entrepreneurs, which will attract other technology-based firms.

Those companies will provide more and better job opportunities for our best-educated Arkansans. Too often in our past, the state has lost talented Arkansans to locations where they could find the better-paying jobs that high-tech companies offer. We need to keep those talented Arkansans here.

Those involved in economic development and work force education know that technology will play an ever-growing role in economic development.

To achieve the state's goal of raising its per capita income to match the national average, it must attract and encourage technology companies that pay higher wages. And that is exactly what Innovate Arkansas seeks to do.

It needs the support of everyone who cares about the state's future.