A new development bank designed to encourage investment in America's Heartland and capitalize on the region's huge potential in energy, agriculture and manufacturing, is the cornerstone of a recent report issued by the New America Foundation (NAF).

The Heartland Development Bank, a project first conceived by Delore Zimmerman, President of Praxis Strategy Group, and NAF senior fellow Joel Kotkin, in an NAF policy paper, will use public and private funds to make the Heartland's emerging growth centers in the United States more productive through investment in education, research and development, and public infrastructure.