PROVIDENCE — Mayor David N. Cicilline has outlined a number of new initiatives he plans over the next 18 months that could boost the city’s information technology and digital media sector.

In his annual State of the City speech last week, Cicilline laid out 30 specific goals that his administration hopes to achieve over the next year and a half. The two-term mayor, a Democrat, has dubbed the list “Operation Opportunity,” and is calling it an Economic Action Plan.

The mayor placed a particular emphasis on boosting the “knowledge economy” in Providence, a common theme in recent years among state and local leaders.

Among the goals the mayor set was the creation of a biotech center in the city. “We will join with our knowledge economy partners in the Jewelry District and facilitate the development of an incubator for biotech entrepreneurs with state-of-the-art wet lab space,” he said. “This facility will help the world-class scientists from our universities and hospitals bring their discoveries to market right here in Providence.”

He also announced plans to create a new Web site for businesses considering relocating to the city and those already here. “We will launch a new Web-based service center completely devoted to attracting new business to the City of Providence and to helping local businesses grow,” he said. “It will be designed to make the experience of planning growth in Providence an easy and inviting one for anyone around the globe.”

Other tech-related goals the mayor outlined included:

• Make $5 million in loans available by recapitalizing Providence Economic Development Partnership (PEDP) fund.
• Finalize site plans for wind turbines.
• Implement executive order so that all new municipal buildings are LEED or CHPS (schools) certified.
• Give every parent an online data dashboard to monitor their child’s daily progress.
• Implement 21st-century science and math curriculum and tools.
• Open a career and technical academy to provide best job training facilities in the state.
• Double the number of online services, including renewal of business-related licenses.

More broadly, Cicilline emphasized the challenge Providence faces in dealing with the economic downturn.

“We have to mobilize as if we’re in the economic equivalent of wartime, because that’s exactly what this is,” the mayor said in the speech, which was given at the R.I. Convention Center.

The mayor’s full address is available at www.providenceri.com.

Cicilline saw his statewide approval rating slip to 38 percent in a Brown University poll released last week. He has not yet said if he will run for a third term as mayor, or make a bid for the governor’s office, in 2010.

Cicilline’s focus on the city’s potential continued last Friday in Washington, D.C., when he attended a meeting of 85 city mayors at the White House convened by President Barack Obama to discuss the implementation of the new economic stimulus law.

In remarks to the mayors, Vice President Joe Biden noted that cities are home to 65 percent of the country’s population and seven out of every 10 jobs. And, Biden added, the number rises to eight out of every 10 jobs in the “knowledge economy.”

“Cities are vital to our economy, essential to our recovery, and haven’t been paid much attention to,” the vice president said.