April 2011

Welcome to the latest update from Invest in America, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s program to promote foreign direct investment to the United States This monthly update is meant to provide a few quick points highlighting some activities of Invest in America.

Invest in America Outreach

Invest in America will participate in:

• May 3: Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S. – How Will It Impact the Future – a workshop organized by the Industrial Asset Management Council’s Spring 2011 Professional Forum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• May 12: International Local Council Forum at the National Association of Realtor’s (NAR) Midyear Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo – The NAR expo will be held on May 9 – 14 in Washington, DC. The Forum will take place on Thursday, May 12 to highlight the industry’s global and multicultural outreach efforts.
• May 17: Sweetening the Deal: Agribusiness Investment in Brazil and the United States: How to do it – A seminar hosted by Baker & Hostetler, LLP to discuss market opportunities in Brazil and the United States will be held in New York.
• June 14 – 16: Invest in America Road Show organized by U.S. Commercial Service, Mexico – The three day seminar will be held in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. It will highlight foreign direct investment in the United States to Mexico’s business community and feature exhibits from U.S. economic development organizations. For details, please email jeff.hamilton@trade.gov or visit www.buyusa.gov/mexico/en/investusa.html.
• June 28: The U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USIST) event at the BIO Global Convention will highlight the Israeli biotechnology sector and investment in the United States. For more information, please email eve@usistf.org or visithttp://usistf.org/03_A.html.

Recent Invest in America participation:

• April 27: SIDO America 2011 Forum in Washington, DC
• April 19 – 20: U.S.-China Metro Growth Forum – In conjunction with the National League of Cities (NLC) Leadership Academy on Local Economic Competitiveness in a Global Era, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Treasury and NLC held a U.S.-China Metro Growth Forum in Seattle, Washington for mayors from the U.S. and China to share best-practices on economic development and FDI attraction.
• April 5: USA: Going Green – Opportunities for Italian Investors – The seminar sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission in Rome, Italy focused on current and future investment opportunities in the U.S. clean-tech industry.
• April 3 – 8: U.S. Trade & Investment Pavilion at Hannover Messe 2011 – The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, Commercial Service and Invest in America partnered to lead a U.S. Trade & Investment Pavilion at HANNOVER MESSE 2011, the world’s largest industrial technology showcase in Hannover, Germany.

Other Upcoming FDI-Related Events:

• May 12 – 13: 3rd German American Energy Conference 2011 Renewable energy and system integration conference in Berlin – The German American Chambers of Commerce (GACC) and the German Energy Agency are hosting the 3rd German American Energy Conference in Berlin. Select business and political experts and decision makers will report on the topic “Global Energy Challenges – Transatlantic Business Opportunities.” For registration and more information:www.gae-conference.com.
• May 19 – 20: The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) will be holding a Korea Overseas Investment Fair (KOIF) at COEX in Seoul. The event will be an opportunity for economic development organizations to promote themselves as a destination for foreign direct investment to Korean companies in attendance. For more information please emailyuhyunju@kotra.or.kr or call +82 2 3460 7358.

Reports of Note

• “Shaping the Green Growth Economy” is published by Green Growth Leaders, an international alliance based in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Pathways Project at the University of California, Berkeley signifying economic growth potential through emissions reductions. It concludes that innovation-led emissions reductions may lead to the creation of new industries and business models that provide growth potential.
• The Congressional Research Service recently published “Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: An Economic Analysis” by James K. Jackson, which studies FDI trends in recent years. It indicates that FDI in the United States is likely to continue increasing as the rate of growth in the U.S. economy rises, interest rates stay low and the rate of price inflation remains consistent. It also highlights financing tools like intercompany debt that U.S. companies engaged in FDI used to endure a tough global economic environment. The report identifies the largest sources of FDI by country and industry sectors. It analyzes statistics published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) in the past few years. The latest BEA data on international investments can be found at www.bea.gov.
• Ernst & Young released a report entitled “Competitiveness of state and local business taxes on new investment” that evaluates U.S. states by tax liabilities on new investment in select industries.

Data

• Inquiries to date in 2011: 74
• Ombudsman cases in 2011: 12

Invest in America’s ombudsman program has achieved a number of successes in working across the federal government to address investor concerns and issues involving federal agencies. If a foreign investor has a federal-level issue that is jeopardizing an investment in the United States, please contact Aaron Brickman at 202-482-5199 or email Invest in America ataaron.brickman@trade.gov.

We invite you to connect with us through the “Invest in America” group on Linkedin.com.

Please address all comments and suggestions to info@investamerica.gov. For more information about Invest in America, please visit our website at www.investamerica.gov.