Aaron Brickman has been with the International Trade Administration for over seven years. He currently serves as the Director of Invest in America; and is responsible for management and coordination of foreign direct investment promotion and related activities of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
As the director of Invest in America, the primary U.S. government mechanism to manage foreign direct investment promotion on the federal level, I’m currently conducting foreign direct investment (FDI) seminars and presentations in Taipei and India. The long flight from Taiwan to India is a great opportunity to provide an update on the growth of FDI from Asia to the United States.
Invest in America (IIA) recently published a paper detailing the important role of Asian-Pacific direct investment to the U.S. economy. The report, “Asian-Pacific Foreign Direct Investment in the United States,” focuses on 10 countries and geographic areas that have a large FDI presence in the United States: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Did you know that Asian–Pacific companies currently employ more than 788,000 U.S. workers? That number is equal to the combined working population of Boston and San Francisco. The jobs are high paying, offering on average $68,000 in annual compensation. These firms spend $4.6 billion annually on research and development in the United States and generate $61 billion in U.S. exports. Our report predicts that Asian–Pacific FDI will increase in the United States during the next 10 years, with China and India likely to be significant contributors to that trend.
Companies invest in America because we represent the largest fully-developed single country economy in the world and because our labor pool is one of the best educated, most productive, and most innovative in the world. We are a global leader in science and technology and a center for innovation. We reward creativity and we safeguard it by a strong intellectual property rights protection and enforcement regime.
To learn more about Invest in America, global FDI trends and resources or to obtain a copy of the report, visit the office’s Web site at www.investamerica.gov.
Tradeology, the ITA Blog 