HERMITAGE — The problem with economic development efforts in the past has been that towns and cities viewed their neighboring municipalities as competitors, said John Fernandez. U.S. assistant secretary for commerce and development.

The real competition is from China, Singapore and elsewhere around the world, not the next town over, he said.

The federal government has been inconsistent in its role in economic development, and needs to promote crossjurisdictional partnerships, Fernandez said.

“It’s too infrequently put to work,” he said. “We can’t let our communities just be out there on their own.”

Projects such Hermitage’s tech center in LindenPointe technical business park, shows the benefits of crossborder support, he said.

“We really are in this together,” Fernandez said Wednesday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the tech center and Butler County Community College’s renovation and expansion of its LindenPointe campus building.

Construction bids will be opened Tuesday for the tech center, which will provide technology business incubator suites and a testing laboratory. The commerce department’s economic development agency is providing $4.2 million, and the state is kicking in another $1.5 million.

Work already has begun to build five new classrooms, two computer labs, a science lab and other amenities at the BC3 building.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams set the stage for Fernandez’s comments by calling for overcoming the artificial borders of local, state and federal jurisdictions.

“If it’s good for western Pennsylvania, it’s good for eastern Ohio, and vice versa,” Williams said.

Williams spoke on behalf of the OH-PENN economic group that encompasses Mercer and Lawrence counties in Pennsylvania and Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties in Ohio.

“We are seeing one of the manifestations of the success of that agreement,” he said.

Williams pledged to support more Pennsylvania projects, while adding, “We hope to see you in Ohio.”

Hermitage Assistant City Manager Gary P. Gulla noted Youngstown’s success in attracting companies to the Youngstown Business Incubator and the planned expansion of V&M Star Steel.

Lenita Jacobs-Simmons, regional administrator for the U.S Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration, also touted the OH-PENN regional effort.

“I’m excited to have the first interstate region in my region,” she said. “We have some neighbors trying to do the same thing.”

The OH-PENN region is a model for an effort to regionalize counties in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, she said.

Ms. Jacobs-Simmons also said the tech center project helps break some of the barriers between economic development and workforce development.

The U.S. economy has been for too long been tied to booms and busts in specific industries, Fernandez said. New technology and ideas have always fueled new products, businesses, services and jobs, and communities should be encouraging innovation.

Innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs tend to want to be around each other, hence the clusters such as Silicon Valley, Fernandez said.

The tech center could be the seed that leads to private investment and jobs, he said.

“It truly represents a great, living example of President Obama’s vision for a new foundation for stable, economic growth,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s a great project. It will really help the region enhance its emerging technology cluster.”

The BC3 project also shows an example of breaking through community borders. The college, the fastest growing of the 14 community colleges in Pennsylvania, is enjoying marked enrollment growth at its Lawrence and Mercer county campuses, said President Dr. Nicholas Neupauer.

Ruth Purcell, director of the BC3 Educational Foundation, called the LindenPointe expansion the most innovative project in the college’s history.

The foundation has undertaken capital projects in Butler County, but usually provides scholarships and technology equipment, she said.

“It’s hard to believe that it was only less than a year ago that the BC3 Foundation was asked to buy the building.” Ms. Purcell said.

BC3 is an investment in the community in that 75 percent of its graduates stay in their home areas after graduation, Neupauer said.

The college offers associate degrees in business, elementary education, psychology and general studies.