Commerce Concludes Successful Week on Trade and Investment, Innovation

Mar272015

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Trade and InvestmentInnovationSelectUSASelectUSA Investment SummitRegional Innovation ChallengeTrade Promotion Authority (TPA)Russell Slifer

Posted at 1:43 PM

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker concluded the second SelectUSA Investment Summit, making it clear to the more than 2,600 people from more than 70 markets, that America is open for business. In her remarks, Secretary Pritzker told investors that we welcome more investment to our shores and that there is no better time to invest in the United States. During the two day summit President Barack Obama and Secretary Prtizker announced a number of new initiatives focused on maintaining America’s position as the world’s premier destination for foreign direct investment.

Following the summit, a bipartisan group of former Secretaries of Commerce, whose tenures spanned from 1973 to 2012, released an open letter urging Congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority, a tool that is essential to the completion and implementation of new trade partnerships. Representing past Administrations dating back to Richard Nixon, the former Secretaries of Commerce noted that giving American businesses better access to the 95 percent of consumers living outside the United States is critical to American competitiveness, economic growth, and job creation.

Rounding out the week, Commerce Penny Pritzker announced the appointment of Russell Slifer as the next Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and delivered the keynote address at the National Association of Development Organization’s 2015 Washington Policy Conference in Arlington, Va. In her remarks to NADO, Secretary Pritzker highlighted the impact economic development organizations have on local communities and the work the Commerce Department is doing to support these organizations. She also announced the winners of an Innovation Challenge competition funded by the Economic Development Agency and hosted by NADO and the National Association of Counties.

2015 SelectUSA Summit Recap

The 2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit aimed to build on the tremendous success of the inaugural event, which connected investors from 60 countries with representatives from nearly every U.S. state and territory. At this year’s Summit, economic development organizations from across the United States gathered to showcase investment opportunities to companies from around the world.

Download 2015 SelectUSA Summit Recap (24.51 MB)

Read video transcript

"The President understands, as you do in business,that a strong economy is friendly to all companies.To fulfill that promise, he created SelectUSA. When President Obama addressed our first SelectUSA Summit, he reminded us and I quote, 'history shows over the last two centuries that when you bet on America, that bet pays off'."-Secretary Pritzker

"I think it's amazing what the Secretary has done because she has given us the opportunity to really talk about what investing in the United States and in rural America, what

that means, what we have to offer, and how we can provide goods of all kinds, whether it be agriculture manufacturing, whether it be energy. It doesn't matter what it is. What we can provide to the rest of the countries in the world and to bringing us together lets us brag about what we have in the United States and how we can really become partners with other

countries, such as Japan. We have been partners with Mexico. We are partners with Israel. We are partners with Saudi Arabia. I mean we are growing and growing our exports like never seen before."

"I think it's wonderful that the government is getting together all of the different actors and recruiting foreign direct investment into one location and the issues that foreign companies

are looking at in terms of making the decision to come to the United States are being discussed. To have a support system available not only at the state level, but also at the nationallevel is very important. I think SelectUSA gives the opportunity to have that."

"Over the past six years, we worked hard to make ourselves a smarter place to invest and to do business than any other country in the world. So, we've got a good story to tell and that's one reason I created SelectUSA. The first ever government wide initiative to encourage more companies from around the world to invest and create jobs right here in the United States. We've got a good story to tell, but we want to make sure all of you had a chance to hear it and the SelectUSA team wakes up every morning with one mission: bringing jobs, creating investment to the United States of America."-President Obama

Commerce Concludes Successful Week on Trade and Investment, Innovation

2015 SelectUSA Summit Recap

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