"Fundamental changes are taking place in the work of attracting foreign investment in the United States!"
"Choose America" office deputy director Aaron Brickman told our reporter that it is difficult to suppress the excitement between the words. On behalf of the federal government of the United States, Brickman has been attracting foreign investment for many years.
With many natural advantages, foreign enterprises have come to the United States to invest in the past. Neither the federal government nor the local state governments in the United States need to spend too much effort on attracting investment to enjoy the throne of the world's largest host country of overseas investment. This leads to the fact that the national investment promotion action of the United States lags behind many countries in the world.
But now that is changing.
U.S. President Barack Obama said publicly in June this year, "business investment, whether from local or foreign sources, is an important driving force for U.S. economic growth and job creation. My government will strive to enhance the competitiveness of the United States in global capital flows."
Obama immediately issued a presidential decree, announcing the creation of a working group for attracting investment across 23 ministries and commissions - "choose America" office, and the construction of a portal called "choose America". The move is seen in the industry as the US version of the national investment promotion agency.
"This is the first time in the history of the United States that the work of attracting investment has been raised to the height of a presidential decree, and it is also the first time that an inter ministerial working group with administrative binding force has been established to attract overseas investment." Aaron Brickman told our reporter on October 18.
The establishment of "choose the United States" not only marks the start of the U.S. government's comprehensive investment promotion action, but also means the U.S. government's major change in the national investment promotion work.
The United States strives to share the new capital feast
The launch of the "choose America" action shows the determination of the United States to join in and share the feast of new global capital.
In the past 60 years, the United States has become a favored host country for foreign capital investment by virtue of its advantages in market, resources, talents and system. The government is used to waiting for investors to come. Until 2008, most U.S. government economic officials' attitude towards the use of foreign capital remained: we are open to the outside world and come whenever we are willing, and do not consider taking the initiative to win over investors.
In Brickman's words, the United States is one of the latest countries in the world to start national investment promotion.
However, in recent years, the attitude of American people of insight towards overseas investment has changed. They gradually realize that the competition for foreign capital is becoming more and more fierce in the world, and the United States is losing its comparative advantage because it has not kept up with the pace of capital expansion in emerging countries.
The White House report shows that compared with the 1990s, the share of foreign direct investment absorbed by the United States in the total global direct investment has decreased significantly, from 26% at that time to 18%. Moreover, the growth of investment from emerging countries is weak. So far, 94% of foreign investment to the United States comes from OECD countries, and the investment from China only accounts for 0.3% of the overseas investment of the United States.
At the same time, competition pressure from Asian and Latin American countries is growing. Since then, China has surpassed the United States as the most attractive country for foreign direct investment, according to a survey conducted by Kearney consulting in 2002.
Local governments in the United States, which were the first to smell this trend, are now looking for investment opportunities in China. At least 30 US state governments have set up representative offices in China to play a role in attracting investment.
However, compared with the Asian and European countries, the United States has been lacking in the ability to attract investment at the national level. The White House employment Committee simply commented, "as a country, the United States has not paid enough attention to attracting the world's best companies to the United States."
This defect directly affects the capital of emerging countries to the United States. For example, since the rapid increase of Chinese capital going out to sea, the United States has always failed to catch up with Europe, Japan and Russia in attracting these investments. In 2010, the U.S. attracted 40% of Chinese investment, but the amount of Chinese investment absorbed by other three countries grew faster, including 101% of China's investment in the European Union and 302% in Japan.
After enjoying the dividend of the world's largest market for 60 years, the United States, the most market-oriented country, will inevitably participate in the game of national investment promotion. However, Obama still paid special attention to the government not to interfere too much in the behavior of enterprises. He said in the presidential order: "the choice of American action is on behalf of the whole country, and will maintain strict neutrality in the implementation of the site selection of settled enterprises."
The United States launched the "national investment promotion" action
One week after the "choose America" campaign was launched, President Obama delivered a speech on foreign investment to expand American employment. This is the first Democratic president to make such a statement in the past 30 years. The White House Budget Office followed closely with the release of a report on the contribution of foreign direct investment to U.S. employment, providing a theoretical basis for the president's action.
Then, officials of the U.S. government also attended activities in the field of "attracting investment" that they were not familiar with.
On October 7, the White House Commission on employment and competitiveness held a meeting to discuss foreign investment. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presided over the meeting. Acting Secretary of Commerce, deputy secretary of state in charge of international economy and presidents of General Electric, Kodak and UBS attended the meeting. The conference sent an important message: foreign direct investment has a role in promoting employment in the United States, and big business owners in the United States are also trying their best to "support Taiwan.".
The current U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke, said that one of his priorities is to attract investment and create jobs for the United States. In his speech in Shanghai on October 13, Locke also made special publicity for the "select USA" project. In June, Locke, then US Secretary of Commerce, was one of the main promoters of the project. Locke said that the plan will integrate the US government's past incentives to attract investment and help states cope with various federal policies that are not conducive to attracting domestic and foreign companies to invest in the US. These measures include coordinating approval departments at all levels to ensure that investment in the United States is free from unreasonable obstacles, and providing various federal projects and services to attract investment.
William Brekke, chief commercial consul of the US Consulate General in Shanghai, said in an interview with our reporter that the United States hopes to attract more Chinese investment.
However, Robert W. Roche, vice chairman of AmCham Shanghai and chairman of the board of directors of Acorn International, told reporters: "the main purpose of this project is to increase employment in the United States, so we should not only attract foreign investment, but also attract domestic enterprises to increase investment in China." According to the data released by the U.S. government, the U.S. unemployment rate remains high and has been above 9% for several months in a row.
"Washington is speeding up its efforts to attract more investment, mainly from the perspective of creating jobs and restoring the economy. These actions are expected to enhance the competitiveness of the United States in attracting investment." Daniel Rosen, chief partner of New York Rongding information, told this reporter.
The United States welcomes overseas investment
The U.S. fully launched the national investment promotion action, which is first reflected in the selection of the new website launched by the Ministry of Commerce (selectusa). commerce。 gov）。 The home page of the website is a map of the United States. Click on each state to enter the website of the economic development agency of the state government and get business information about the state. The website also lists nearly 100 preferential policies for investment.
Brickman told reporters that the orientation of choosing the United States is to be a portal for foreigners to invest in the United States. According to him, website f serves international investors, US investors, US economic development institutions and institutions serving cross-border investment.
Behind the launch of the website is the adjustment of the U.S. government's functions to attracting investment. Obama's specific approach is to be led by the U.S. Department of Commerce, horizontally build a working group covering 23 ministries and commissions, vertically build a U.S. website and link to the websites of state investment offices. So as to form a three-dimensional "investment" government.
The establishment of the working group is expected to facilitate overseas investors to handle investment approval and other administrative procedures. Brickman pointed out that the advantage of the inter departmental working group is to make all departments speak in a unified voice: the United States welcomes overseas investment. In particular, he stressed that the departments engaged in investment review are also members of the working group.
In the past, the US government's investment security review and overt or covert political struggle often made China's investment guests feel uneasy. The reporter checked the original text of the presidential decree and found that the Ministry of finance, the Ministry of defense, and the Ministry of homeland security were all included in the working group. "This group can really grasp the support of various departments of the federal government to attract overseas investment." Brickman points out.
Influenced by the "choose America" action, the functions of American overseas business officials have also quietly changed. The United States has business diplomats in 120 different cities in 77 countries, and the total number of business diplomats that can be mobilized at home and abroad is thousands. After the start of the "choose the United States" initiative, the development of local enterprises to invest in the United States has been promoted as an important task for them. In the past, the top priority of these officials was to develop markets for American enterprises overseas.
President Obama hopes that choosing American action will "create private sector jobs and promote economic growth.". A report under discussion in the White House shows that foreign multinationals in the United States are an important pillar of the U.S. economy, providing 18% of U.S. jobs, 70% of R & D and 44% of exports.
However, there are also some people inside and outside the US government who worry that because the White House has not provided additional budget for the choice of us actions, the strength of US national investment promotion will be inferior to that of other developed countries with more investment. For example, the German government employs 300 investment officials, and the Singapore Investment Promotion Council has more than 500 employees. The U.S. Department of Commerce's choice of U.S. offices is in single digits.
In this regard, Brickman believes that the U.S. approach is to take the lead of the Department of Commerce and extensively mobilize human resources cooperation of other departments and agencies. Moreover, local governments in the United States have strong investment attraction strength and can complement the federal government.