Ilija Želalic, General Consul (second from right), flanked by other members of the delegation from the Republic of Croatia.RIVERSIDE COUNTY is pushing to develop stronger business relationships with countries outside the United States so that local firms can sell products abroad and also benefit from the economic impact of foreign direct investment into the region.
Spurred by strong direction from the Board of Supervisors, the county recently signed a bilateral agreement with Croatia, has hosted delegations from China and worked with Japan to explore ways that Riverside County can continue to develop its own global economy. The county already is home to 526 foreign-owned businesses, and is trying to expand that even further to create jobs and enjoy the economic ripple effect of such jobs.
"Foreign direct investment is critical to Riverside County because it creates jobs for our workers rather than shipping them off shore,” said Tom Freeman, Commissioner of the County’s Office of Foreign Trade. “It’s extremely important that we continue to open more markets for products made in Riverside County. More markets abroad mean more employees locally.
Junichi Ihara, Consul General of Japan”There is substantial money at stake. A new report from the Brookings Institution found that unemployment and other economic ills can be reduced through increasing exports from the U.S. to other countries.
The Washington, D.C., think tank found that Riverside County ranked 23rd among the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas for exports, with $11.5 billion worth of goods and services exported in 2008, or about 8.7 percent of the region's economy. Brookings estimated that exports are responsible for 86,327 jobs in the region.
Riverside County already enjoys strong representation from businesses that are tied to countries like Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, and England. The county works with foreign-owned companies that need financing to arrange loan guarantees and lines of credit that can mean the difference in a deal going forward with exports.
“The list goes on and on,” Freeman said. “And the goal is to get even more of them here. There isn’t a month that goes by that we are not doing something that is Board-directed on foreign trade.”
Riverside County recently signed a bilateral trade agreement with Croatia, culminating a six-month process that included visits to the Croatian embassy in Washington, D.C. The agreement is a good fit for Riverside County because the county has similar strengths— agriculture, tourism, manufacturing—as Croatia.
Riverside County recently signed a bilateral trade agreement with Croatia, culminating a six-month process that included visits to the Croatian Embassy in Washington, D.C. The agreement is a good fit for Riverside County because the county has similar strengths—agriculture, tourism, manufacturing—as Croatia.“We have a lot more in common with them than meets the eye,” Freeman said.
The agreement calls for identifying projects that can benefit both Riverside County and Croatia, such as solar energy development in Riverside County and golf course development in Croatia, using Riverside County firms.
The approach to foreign direct investment has many levels. Freeman, for example, works closely with foreign embassies and trade offices, ensuring they have a steady supply of information about Riverside County and places where companies from abroad could invest. He routinely hosts business leaders and government officials from outside the U.S. who are interested in establishing or expanding their presence in the states.
“We have gotten a lot of national and international interest,” Freeman said.
Riverside County is appealing to foreign investors because of the availability of relatively inexpensive buildings, the available workforce and the access to nearby ports, freeways and railway hubs. The interest is welcomed by Riverside County because many of the jobs created by foreign direct investment have higher than average wages and good benefits packages.
Those additional jobs, and the good wages they offer, are important to Riverside County as it continues to diversify its economy, which has been hard hit by layoffs in the construction industry, as well as in the real estate and financial sectors. There are also spin-off effects, such as when foreign companies agree to sponsor research at local universities in hopes that the research will aid the companies’ bottom lines.
Riverside County was one of the first in the country to endorse a program that is designed to lure foreign direct investment to the region by making visas available to business people who want to live in the U.S. In exchange for investing in U.S. businesses or starting new businesses here, foreign business people are entitled to apply for a visa that allows them to come to the U.S. faster than otherwise would be possible.