Maryland’s substantial government procurement economy comprises 18% of its gross domestic product and is primed to grow, but Maryland-based businesses aren’t benefiting enough, according to a Drexel University study released Thursday.
Like the federal and state governments, Maryland’s local governments, especially its largest jurisdictions such as Baltimore city and Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, have their own procurement systems.
But government officials, economists, business owners and others comprising and monitoring the state’s procurement economy didn’t have a clear sense of its exact scale, Comptroller Brooke Lierman said during an event focused on the new study Thursday at Johns Hopkins University.
“How much money are we talking about? How does it break down by industry? Most importantly, how are Maryland-based firms, how are minority-owned firms, how are women-owned firms participating in this procurement economy?” Lierman said to the crowd of a few dozen gathered for the event inside the school’s Levering Hall.
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