At the end of this month, we’ll spend 5 days at Select USA in Washington, DC. This annual event, May 1 through May 4, is presented by the US Department of Commerce to connect economic development organizations, investors, companies, and industry experts. The goal is to bring foreign investment deals to the US.
In the past 10 years, Select USA has brought over $80 billion dollars in investment and 60,000 jobs across the US.
The event draws more than 3000 attendees, many of which are, like us, economic developers representing states and localities across the country. About half are foreign business investors from 70+ international markets.
We are pleased to have been chosen to staff the North Carolina booth, along with about a dozen other developers from our state. During our “off hours,” we’ll attend panels, pitch sessions and workshops on every subject from developing a workforce to understanding the latest incentive methods. We’ll have the opportunity for one-on-one meetings and “table sessions” with individual companies.
There are over 100 sessions offered, providing advice and information from policy and industry experts.
Our partners at the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) are sponsoring a dinner event on evening. The Japanese Embassy has invited us to attend an event on another evening. (One of our newest local companies, Astellas Pharma, is a Japanese company based in Tokyo.)
In 2019, our friends from the Kalyani Group (Bharat Forge Aluminum USA) were in attendance. We were pleased to be able to spend some great “face time” with company leaders and of course, the result was a positive decision to build a facility in Lee County.
It’s a great platform to introduce new foreign companies to what is available in the US to support their success.
Bob Joyce
Senior Director
bjoyce@growsanfordnc.com