Governor Cuomo kicked off round 3 of the competition among the state's Regional Economic Development Councils on Wednesday.
The 10 councils will be competing for $222 million in state funds. The Finger Lakes Regional council was the winner of the best plan award in round two last year.
Council co-chair Sandy Parker says more than 250 regional stakeholders make up the council's 14 work groups and they are working toward a goal of creating 40,000 new jobs in the region by the end of 2016.
Parker says there will also be a focus on agriculture and food processing. She says 10-thousand jobs were created in the economic development council's projects in the first two years.