US urges foreign investment as Select USA Summit begins

The US Monday called on foreign investors to look to America for growing their business, and touted the nation's laws, workforce talent, and diversity of opportunity, as a two-day Select USA Summit kicked off with more than 2,600 attendees.
"America's economic resurgence is real and there is no better time to invest in our country," Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said in her opening remarks.
"Companies choose to invest here because of our rising job market," she added, emphasizing that 12 million jobs were created in the last five years, and 900,000 of them were in manufacturing.
Among the many reasons to encourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the US, Pritzker said, is the country's "strong rule of law," as well as "intellectual property protections" and "abundant and affordable energy supply." She also cited America's "low tariff rates" and the "talent and ingenuity of our people." President Barack Obama launched Select USA as a federal initiative to promote investment in America. The first summit was held in 2013, and the number of participants has since doubled.
Representatives from 70 markets are in the audience, including a six-member delegation of Kuwaiti business leaders, headed by US Ambassador to Kuwait Douglas Silliman.
The Kuwaiti delegates are Ali Al-Moussa, Chairman of the Commercial Bank of Kuwait; Abdulaziz Al-Marzooq, CEO of Kuwait Financial House Capital Investment; Khaled Al-babtain, Chairman of the Al-Babtain Group Holding Company; Sami Shabshab, President of Mar-Gulf Management Company Inc.; Iqbal Mohammad, President of United Gulf Management, Inc.; and Abdulwahab Al-Haroun, Vice Chairman of Fosterlane Management Inc., also acting as a representative of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Up to USD 13 billion worth of investments have been announced over the past year by summit participants, Pritzker noted.
"I want to make it crystal clear: We want your business," she told the crowd. "Our workers benefit" from US subsidiaries of foreign-owned firms, she added. "More than 5.8 million Americans work in jobs supported by FDI," she said. "Our doors will remain open to your businesses."