"Insourcing American Jobs" Forum President Obama called on companies across the nation to invest in America at an “Insourcing American Jobs” forum at the White House.
other countries. The full report can be found HERE.
While other countries often advocate at the national level for business investment, the United States has historically left this activity to the states. The President launched the SelectUSA program in 2011 to address this critical gap, creating the first federal program to promote and facilitate U.S. investment in partnership with our states. To build on early success, the President will be proposing, in his FY13 Budget, $12 million in new resources to increase SelectUSA to 35 full-time employees. An expanded SelectUSA will:
• Build a comprehensive worldwide foreign direct investment promotion program: SelectUSA will be fully resourced to engage and assist potential investors to the U.S. from all major global markets.
• Support more than 300 investment cases per year: SelectUSA will build a case management team to oversee ombudsman and advocacy cases, enabling SelectUSA’s and its multi-agency investment team to work with states and cities to address issues that impede business investment.
• Host a SelectUSA Conference in Washington D.C. to boost investment in the U.S.: The Administration will host a two day investment conference with all levels of government and businesses from around the world to attract companies to our shores, address issues companies face in choosing to invest in the U.S., and providing relevant information from federal agencies to support investment and insourcing jobs.
As a part of the administration’s ongoing We Can’t Wait efforts, the administration also announced several common-sense steps it has taken to incentivize insourcing:
• Building use of SBA’s International Trade Loan program to support small businesses seeking to insource. The Small Business Administration will launch an effort using its existing authority to educate businesses about opportunities to access insourcing loans through the SBAs International Trade Loan program, which provides generous loan support (loans up to $5 million and a guarantee up to 90 percent) for small businesses that are trying to access foreign markets or are adversely impacted by imports. While many small businesses that are insourcing are eligible for these loans, few have taken advantage of the program. SBA will expand outreach efforts around this product by informing small businesses across the country of their eligibility for this opportunity and helping them apply for loans to bring production back home.
• Launching a partnership between Commerce and the State Department to promote investment in 10 priority countries through the Foreign Commercial Service supported by the U.S. Embassies. This pilot effort will dedicate resources from Commerce’s Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) to investment promotion in 10 pilot countries representing 30% of foreign direct investment in the United States, expanding to cover 25 countries in 2013 representing roughly 90% of FDI. U.S. Ambassadors will lead these efforts, engaging officials from State and other in country officials to assist investment promotion through business outreach, hosting ‘investment missions’ with governors and mayors, and connecting foreign firms to Select USA services.
• Increasing support for states’ efforts to promote investment through federal officials in Export Assistance Centers (USEACs)
