ED Now

On June 21, the Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and the SelectUSA Executive Director Vinai Thummalapally concluded the third and final SelectUSA Summit under the Obama administration. The two-day Summit was highly successful, welcoming more than 2,500 participants from 70 foreign markets and the United States. International companies and domestic economic development organizations (EDOs) were brought together to explore job-creating investment opportunities. Many IEDC members attended and spoke during the Summit, including IEDC Chair Barry Matherly who participated in a session on workforce development that included the Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe, and President & CEO of Rolls-Royce North ...

This year’s Federal Forum offered unparalleled access to federal officials, along with opportunities to learn about policies and programs that impact trade, workforce development, incentives, and more.

Interested in attending the 2016 Hannover Messe trade show next year? You won’t want to miss this call with SelectUSA next Friday. The U.S. is the official partner country for the 2016 show, which comes with special opportunities for U.S. EDO’s. Details about the call are below, but you must register for the call by emailing Micah Escobedo ([email protected]) Please join us on Friday, November 6th at 10:00 a.m. EST for a conference call. Do you work for a U.S. economic development organization? Are you wondering whether you should participate in Hannover Messe 2016, the world’s largest trade show for industrial goods, technology, and R&D? The United States will be the official Partner Country, and we are ready ...

By Alex Kravecas, IEDC graduate intern, American University On March 23 and 24 in Washington, D.C., the 2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit brought together more than 2,600 economic developers, elected officials, ambassadors, and foreign investors to discuss the foreign investment climate in the United States and ways to encourage job-creating investment. President Obama delivered the keynote address. “The fact is, there’s never been a more exciting time for us to do business together,” the president remarked. “Today I want to talk about why America is not only the right place for you to invest, but why America is the safest, strongest, smartest place for you to invest.” President Obama touted key U.S. ...

Registration is open for the second SelectUSA Investment Summit in the Washington, DC area on March 23-24, 2015! Global investors and economic development organizations will find the practical tools, information, and connections they need to move investments forward. The Summit will showcase investment opportunities from every corner of the United States, while high-profile business and government leaders share their insight on the latest trends. The trade show and online matchmaking will enable investors to meet face-to-face with economic developers, as well as federal, state, and local officials. In 2013, President Obama hosted the first-ever SelectUSA Summit. The event was oversubscribed, with a full capacity crowd of more than ...

The 2014 White house Forum on Economic Development was held on August 6^th. Fifty-one senior economic development professionals, including members of IEDC’s Board of Directors, Economic Development Research Partners, and Public Policy Advisory Committee, joined 18 senior administration officials in a day long dialogue on current economic development policy issues. Representatives from the National Economic Council, White House Business Council, SelectUSA, Economic Development Administration, International Trade Administration, Department of Energy, Small Business Administration, National Science Foundation, National  Institutes for Standards and Technology, Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Science & Technology Policy covered topics including foreign direct investment, workforce development, export promotion, entrepreneurship, and manufacturing.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is key to maintaining our nation’s competitiveness. Foreign companies make significant contributions to regional and economic development. The Brookings Institution claims in recently released findings that foreign owned companies employ 5.6 million workers across the United States. Not only do FDI contribute to employment, but they are also important to growth in manufacturing, R&D, and trade. Linda Dempsey, Vice President of International Economic Affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), claimed the importance of FDI to U.S. growth by saying that “U.S. subsidiaries of international companies employ millions of American workers, account for 17 percent of the ...

America ranks first in the world for investment. According to a recently release survey, America is leading the world in attracting investment. The AT Kearney survey on Foreign Direct Investment Confidence ranks countries based on “how changes in their political, economic, and regulatory systems are likely to affect foreign direct investment inflows in the coming years,” and the results of this survey show that U.S. is the top destination in the world for Foreign Direct Investment. The U.S. extended its lead with one of the highest confidence scores on record for any country, and a full 49 percent of respondents had a positive view of the U.S. which is the highest number recorded in the index’s 16 year history. ...