Facing a struggling US economy, President Barack Obama is reaching out to foreign businesses and investors as he is selling the country as a safe business environment.
Obama is speaking Thursday before SelectUSA 2013 Investment Summit, in an effort to promote US as a healthy investment environment and connect foreign and domestic companies and investors with economic development organizations across the nation, the Associated Press reported.
The summit, which is part of the Commerce Department’s efforts to attract foreign investments, is a change of direction for promoting foreign business in the US.
In the past, states and cities had to directly connect and compete with foreign countries. But, Commerce and State Department teams are now to make attracting foreign direct investments one of their priorities.
“It’s not a level playing field for a mayor of one of our cities to have to compete against the prime minister or head of state of a major industrial power,” Reuters quoted White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling as telling reporters.
Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker says the US could bring $160 billion in foreign direct investments into its economy last year.
Pritzker said the summit will host 1,200 CEOs, investors and economic development officials.
A jobs report released last week showed the economic recovery in the US continues to be slow as experts warn that the disagreements between the two major parties in Washington over fiscal policies only makes the current situation worse.
Republicans used the report to criticize Obama’s economic policies.
“Today’s report shows the president has more than a troubled website to fix – he has a troubled economy, weakened by years of failed ‘stimulus’ policies and excessive red tape,” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a release, relating the report to technical problems with the website for Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
AN/ISH
Source: Press TV