IIUSA attended the 2013 SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington DC from October 31-November 1. The Program constituted numerous high level speakers from the Obama Administration as well as corporate executives of leading companies in the United States and around the globe. Businesses, investors and various economic development organizations came together to network and exchange ideas on how to secure the continued growth and prosperity of the American Economy. Representatives from 47 states campaigned their investment opportunities around the country.
During his keynote speech, President Obama specifically addressed the importance of attracting foreign direct investment into the United States by announcing the first ever comprehensive plan led by the federal government to bring international jobs and investment into the U.S. He targeted the aggressive expansion and enhancement of SelectUSA as the key avenue by which to implement his plan.
The President noted that to date, the U.S. has never before coordinated efforts to attract job-creating foreign investment into America and that for the first time ever, domestic and overseas teams at Commerce and State will make recruiting business investment one of their main priorities, alongside their traditional focus on export promotion and commercial advocacy. The President revealed that he intends to organize dedicated investment teams led by Ambassadors and senior-level officials, all the way up to the President, to actively encourage and track job-creating investment into the U.S. For the first time ever, there will be a single point of contact for businesses and ready investors looking to bring jobs and production into the U.S.
On the flip side, SelectUSA will for the first time deeply support states and cities to compete for job-creating foreign investment by helping regional, state, and local economic development organizations connect with overseas markets and investors and improve coordination to increase their success rate at attracting foreign investment. By leveraging the federal government’s domestic networks, SelectUSA will provide new services to domestic partners, including counseling on implementing best practice investment attraction strategies, data analysis of investment trends, and how to better allocate resources when attracting investments.
IIUSA served as the voice of the EB-5 Program at the conference and illustrated it’s capability of being a powerful economic development tool and job creating entity in the 21st century American Economy. IIUSA made direct connections with State Economic Development Organizations as well as government agency representatives and top-level industry experts from around the world. IIUSA looks forward to representing our Members’ best interests, and those of the EB-5 Program, at more great events like these in the future.
Related links…
