Ringing in 2017 with a Focus on Foreign Direct Investment
January 6, 2017Vinai Thummalapally is Executive Director of SelectUSA
“There’s no substitute for those three proud words: ‘Made in America.’” Thus began my first ever blog post as Executive Director of SelectUSA in 2013. These words were spoken by none other than President Barack Obama on October 31, 2013 addressing participants of the inaugural SelectUSA Investment Summit. Clearly the words made an impression – and it’s been a very good year for foreign direct investment (FDI).
Thummalapally (front, left) leads a demonstration of SelectUSA’s online data tool with staff and Summit participants at last year’s SelectUSA Investment Summit.
Total FDI in the United States again broke records, reaching $3.1 trillion. In 2016, for the fourth year in a row, the United States topped A.T. Kearney’s FDI Confidence Index. And additionally we received a new honor – ranking first in the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute’s annual Index.
FDI attraction is a highly collaborative endeavor, requiring business leader input, all-of-government engagement, inter-agency cooperation, and the deep local knowledge, expertise, and passion of economic developers. This is exemplified by the U.S. Investment Advisory Council (IAC), which was officially convened as a true public-private partnership of international business leaders, economic developers, and government representatives to advise the Secretary of Commerce on the best ways to attract FDI to the United States. The Council recently made four recommendations for enhancing FDI in the United States – promote infrastructure investment opportunities; continue to work to remove barriers to FDI; harmonize federal, state, and regional FDI attraction objectives and strategies; and redouble our workforce development efforts to prepare for today’s needs.
Another notable milestone in 2016 was how our events settled into a comfortable rhythm, auguring high expectations for 2017.
In April, the SelectUSA brand achieved peak visibility through our participation at Hannover Messe as official Partner Country with Germany. President Barack Obama led the largest-ever U.S. delegation to the world’s top industrial technology trade show, and became the first sitting U.S. President to attend the event.
In June, the third SelectUSA Investment Summit was held in Washington, D.C. with more than 2,500 attendees. More than 1,000 investors from 70 countries, economic development organizations from every corner of the United States, 20 federal agencies and 8 cabinet members joined the President to welcome the delegation. With our 2017 Summit fast approaching in June, our signature event has become an annual tradition.
Finally, we all celebrated the many investment successes for EDOs across the country, a number of which are being highlighted in our latest blog series, Spotlight on EDOs. To date, SelectUSA, working with our EDO and investor clients in close coordination with our Commercial Service colleagues, has assisted more than $23 billion in client verified investments in the United States.
We are all optimistic about what 2017 will bring. The fundamentals that make the United States a great place to invest – our markets, our climate of innovation, our rule of law and our people – are stronger than ever. And there are new areas opening up than ever before. For instance, it is widely believed that investment opportunities in infrastructure could amount to more than $1 trillion. There has never been a better time to invest in the United States.
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