I attended the 2018 SelectUSA Investment Summit held in Washington DC June 20-22, 2018, which was themed “Invest Here. Grow Here. Succeed Here.” This event highlights the focus of our Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) practice well, and I want to share a re-cap of the interest and activity at a national level.
What is Select USA?
SelectUSA is led by the US Department of Commerce and, since its inception, has facilitated more than $30 billion in investment, creating tens of thousands of US jobs. In 2018, SelectUSA attracted over 3,000 people from 66 foreign markets around the globe, as well as economic development organizations from all corners of the country, high-level government officials, and others working to facilitate foreign direct investment into the US. In its fifth year, the 2018 Investment Summit focused on several issues affecting FDI in the United States, including infrastructure, tax reform, deregulation, advanced manufacturing, and the burgeoning commercial space industry.
Michigan Involvement
The State of Michigan’s booth at SelectUSA showcased the tremendous amount of opportunity, resources, talent and teamwork from every level of government, focused on international business attraction to Michigan. I was honored to again work so closely with the whole team of Michigan economic developers to meet and support foreign companies in the planning stage of expanding to the US.
Similar to FDI activity our firm supports in Michigan, I met companies from Europe, Israel, India, Australia, China, Korea and other parts of the world who were interested in investigating the opportunities for investment and expansion into the US. While we see dominance in our client base of companies from Europe and China, I saw significant interest at this event from India and Israel.
FDI Services
Bringing the firm’s 30 years of FDI experience to my meetings with companies considering expanding to the US, I helped them understand the critical first steps, the accounting and tax requirements, and the other business considerations which support a successful expansion to the US.
If you have friends considering expanding to the US, I would be happy to talk with them and share more information about SelectUSA and how we can support their expansion. The date for next year’s Summit has not been announced but I trust those who take the time to attend will find it very helpful indeed.
