As we have
seen in weeks past, offshoring is generally associated with the U.S. moving
abroad, but last week I showed that some foreign companies actually offshore to
the U.S. So how exactly does the U.S. lure foreign investors’ attention?
According
to Vila, states can no longer have a blanket appeal to all FDI’s (foreign
direct investors), rather they have to manipulate and tailor their economic
appeal based on the interested company (Vila 2010). This seems like a pretty
good idea because companies are getting exactly what they are investing in; no
cultural differences would be impeding on business. This also gives more
freedom for companies to get creative when constructing contracts. With more
freedom comes more prospective FDIs and let’s be honest, why would the U.S. not
want more cash flow coming in?
States
often attract FDIs simply by exposing themselves globally. Florida for
instance, holds aviation conferences and invites CEO’s from around the world to
participate (Vila 2010). In 2005, Florida attended Japan’s 63rd
Annual World’s Fair Exhibition located in Aichi, Japan to show their tourist
attractions as well as market themselves in other avenues as a potential area
of foreign investment. This clearly works because Florida is one of Japan’s
main clients when it comes to commerce.
Another method
of attraction is offering citizenship to foreigners. NBC News published an
article on a Russian family that paid $500,000 to the EB-5 Visa Program for citizenship
(Rafferty 2013). How this works is that the citizenship is contingent on the
applicants investing their money in a business venture in America. There are
obviously measures taken to ensure their money is not fraudulent nor illicit,
but this is a creative method to not only pump money into the economy, but also
to protect the sanctity of citizenship. In other words, people are not just
getting a free citizenship with U.S. taxpayer dollars. Some may view this as a
way for people to buy their way into becoming a citizen, but quite frankly it
seems like an efficient way to not only provide people with the opportunity to
come to America, but it also helps the economy. This makes immigration into a
business, but these days everything in America is business. Fortunately, there
are other ways in which people can get citizenship—it does not exclude poorer
immigrants to my knowledge. We just do not need more people coming to America
and immediately jumping on the welfare wagon. The other part about the EB-5
Visa Program is that a minimum of 10 jobs have to created with the money
invested (Rafferty 2013). This is the greatest appeal for me. Plain and simple,
we need jobs in America. No matter the type, whether it is a custodial job or a
project manager, there are too many people and not enough jobs. This is an
attempt to fill that gap—scratching the surface of the job gap if you will.
In
conclusion, America is becoming an attractive place for investors despite the
common talk of China this, India that. Companies are looking here! I hope this
at least introduced you to this upcoming trend in commerce. I learned a lot and
I hope you did too!
Works Cited
Rafferty, A. (2013, April 28). Money can’t buy love, but it
can open the door to US citizenship. NBC
News. Retrieved from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/28/17724530-money-cant-buy-love-but-it-can-open-the-door-to-us-citizenship?lite
Vila, A. (2010, July 12). “The Role of States in Attracting
Foreign Direct Investment: A Case Study of Florida, South Caroline, Indiana,
and Pennsylvania”. Law and Business
Review of the Americas. Retrieved from http://studentorgs.law.smu.edu/getattachment/International-Law-Review-Association/Resources/LBRA-Archive/16-2/SMB205.pdf.aspx
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