Virginia Economic Review: First Quarter 2024

First Class in International Business

How foreign direct investment in Virginia benefits companies and communities alike

PERSPECTIVES FROM THOUGHT LEADERS

Ambassador Mark Brzezinski, U.S. Ambassador to Poland | Dennis Meseroll, Tractus Asia Limited

Jasjit Singh, SelectUSA | Ambassador Alexander Yui, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

How

The Best of Both Worlds International companies have found a Virginia location can equate to success

A Center of International Business in the New River

Pulaski

Brick by Brick, the LEGO Group Builds a Sustainable Future in Virginia

New manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County is designed to support the company’s sustainability ambitions

Infrastructure Excellence Draws International Investment

Global companies cite Washington Dulles International Airport, The Port of Virginia as key factors in success

Best Practices for Minimizing the Impact of Federal Visa Roadblocks

Virginia leaders advise foreign companies to plan for lengthy visa application timelines

The Shenandoah River, shown here near its headwaters in Warren County, is a popular water recreation hotspot best known for its inclusion in the lyrics to John Denver’s classic “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

Goodies Frozen Custard & Treats began its existence as a food truck before opening a brick-and-mortar location in Alexandria’s historic Old Town neighborhood. Old Town, originally planned in 1749, is the oldest section of the city and was once part of Washington, D.C.

Die Vorteile Virginias, or the Virginia Advantage

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) is a foundational component of the U.S. economy, bringing high-quality, skilled jobs to the country. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that foreign investment in the United States totaled more than $177 billion in 2022. Virginia is home to more than 1,000 foreign-owned companies that employ more than 200,000 people. Those jobs are beneficial and soughtafter; nationally, jobs at foreign-owned companies pay 7% more than the economy-wide average.

Foreign-owned companies in Virginia range from major automakers (Mazda, Volkswagen Group of America, Volvo Trucks) to companies across the food production chain (U.S. headquarters for Lidl and Nestlé and production facilities for Bimbo, Bowman Andros, and Danone) to the cluster of aviation companies that has sprung up around Washington Dulles International Airport (Airbus, Lufthansa Cargo, Satair). International companies are present in every region of the Commonwealth, providing good jobs to major metros and rural areas alike. They’re drawn by Virginia’s strong infrastructure, businessfriendly mentality, advantageous midAtlantic location, and top-notch talent.

In this issue of Virginia Economic Review, we explore the economic value FDI brings to countries, states, regions, and localities while detailing Virginia’s advantages and resources for international companies and

resources for companies looking to invest in the United States. We also profile an FDI hotspot in Pulaski County, detail the way European companies are leading the way on sustainable construction techniques and innovative workforce development programs, and highlight the challenge of obtaining worker visas and what companies can do to minimize expenses and delays.

Also inside this issue are discussions with key thought leaders with unique perspectives on FDI: Ambassador Mark Brzezinski, the U.S. ambassador to Poland; Ambassador Alexander Yui, the Taiwanese representative to the United States; Jasjit Singh, executive director of SelectUSA, a government-wide program that works to attract FDI to the United States; and Dennis Meseroll, co-founder and executive director of global FDI advisory firm Tractus Asia Limited.

We hope you enjoy this look into a crucial pillar of the economy and the ways the Commonwealth works with international investors to benefit companies, communities, and employees alike.

Jason El Koubi President and CEO, Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Facts Figures

200,700 Virginia jobs directly supported by majority foreign-owned affiliates

32,400 Manufacturing workers employed by international employers in Virginia

1,020 International employers with operations in Virginia

19.8%

Increase in FDI-related employment in Virginia, 2016–2021

GLOBAL BUSINESS ALLIANCE, 2023

SELECTUSA, 2023

GLOBAL BUSINESS ALLIANCE, 2023

GLOBAL BUSINESS ALLIANCE, 2023

Other

Germany United Kingdom Japan Canada Switzerland

Selected Virginia Wins

Framatome Inc., an international leader in nuclear energy, will invest $49.4 million to expand, modernize, and enhance its facilities in the city of Lynchburg to meet increasing demand for servicing existing nuclear power plants and developing solutions for advanced and small nuclear reactors. Virginia successfully competed with North Carolina and Pennsylvania for the project, which will create 515 new jobs.

Headquartered in France with its U.S. headquarters in Lynchburg, Framatome’s more than 18,000 employees design, service, and install components, fuel, and instrumentation and control systems for nuclear power plants. Support for the company’s job creation will be provided through the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a workforce initiative created by VEDP in collaboration with higher education partners that accelerates new facility startups through the direct delivery of recruitment and training services that are fully customized to a company’s unique products, processes, equipment, standards, and culture. All program services are provided at no cost to qualified new and expanding companies.

Our extensive investments in facility expansion and modernization, broadening our labor pool, and escalating recruitment will help energize our community and align us with the Commonwealth of Virginia as catalysts in the transition to a clean energy future.

KATHY WILLIAMS CEO, Framatome North America

Selected Virginia Wins

Greater Richmond

CEEUS, Inc.

Jobs: 30 New Jobs

CapEx: $37M

Locality: Hanover County

Hampton Roads

DOMA Technologies

Jobs: 307 New Jobs

CapEx: $3.7M

Locality: City of Virginia Beach

Katoen Natie Norfolk Inc.

Jobs: 76 New Jobs

CapEx: $59.9M

Locality: City of Norfolk

Solenis

Jobs: 34 New Jobs

CapEx: $193M

Locality: City of Suffolk

Lynchburg Region

Framatome Inc.

Jobs: 515 New Jobs

CapEx: $49.4M

Locality: City of Lynchburg

Northern

Shenandoah Valley

WCS Logistics

Jobs: 15 New Jobs

CapEx: $27M

Locality: Frederick County

Northern Virginia

CoStar Group, Inc.

Jobs: 150 New Jobs

CapEx: $20M

Locality: Arlington County

Trident Systems

Jobs: 50 New Jobs

CapEx: $3.7M

Locality: Fairfax County

TTM Technologies, Inc.

Jobs: 43 New Jobs

CapEx: $13.4M

Locality: Loudoun County

Roanoke Region

Mack Trucks

Jobs: 51 New Jobs

CapEx: $14.5M

Locality: Roanoke County

Northern Shenandoah Valley

Northern Virginia

Shenandoah Valley

Central Virginia

Greater Fredericksburg Washington, D.C.

Northern Neck

Middle Peninsula

Greater Richmond

Lynchburg Region

Southern Virginia

South Centr al Virg inia

Virginia’s Gateway Region

Hampton Roads

Easte rn Shor

GLOBAL CAPITAL, IMPACT

LOCAL

How foreign direct investment helps the U.S. economy and creates jobs

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a sometimes overlooked, but vital, cornerstone of the U.S. economy. Investments from overseas create high-quality, skilled jobs that pay higher-than-average wages. In 2022, foreign direct investment to acquire, establish, or expand U.S. businesses totaled more than $177 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Manufacturing took in nearly a third of that amount, or $55.2 billion. More than 1,000 foreignowned companies operate in Virginia, employing more than 200,000 people.

It speaks to the importance of FDI to the Virginia economy and companies alike that foreign companies that invest in Virginia often come back for future expansions. Belgian warehousing and distribution company Katoen Natie has expanded its Norfolk facility twice since opening it in 2011. Weidmüller Group, a German industrial connectivity solutions provider, has operated in the Richmond area since the 1970s and announced an expansion in 2023. Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé S.A. relocated its U.S. headquarters from California to Arlington County in 2017. Nestlé has since made two substantial subsidiary investments in Virginia, with Gerber Products Company moving its headquarters to Arlington County in 2018, and Nestlé Purina Pet Care expanding its manufacturing plant in King William County in 2021.

RIPPLE EFFECTS

Multinational enterprises that plant roots in Virginia help companies expand, create more employment, foster innovation, and boost local economies. Nationwide, international companies employ 7.9 million U.S. workers who earn an average of $86,859 annually, 7% higher than the economy-wide average. In Northern Virginia, foreign companies paid an estimated $6.8 billion in wages in 2022, averaging an estimated $133,058 per job, 24.3% higher than average.

Higher salaries are indicative of the technology and valuable skills that global companies prize. Multinationals setting up shop in the United States tend to be highly efficient and deal in advanced technology.

“The workers that they hire in the U.S. tend to be more skilled than average because their advanced production techniques require workers with similarly advanced skills and education,” said Sonal Pandya, Ph.D., an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia who researches international political economy and the influence of politics on global production.

The U.S. is a top destination for global companies with large amounts of intellectual property. Foreign investment finances 13% of all research and development performed by U.S. companies, or $78 billion a year.

In addition to foreign investment’s direct benefits, the local economy feels indirect ripple effects. A company using foreign capital to expand, or a foreign company opening an office or manufacturing or research facility, creates opportunities for suppliers and other businesses that serve the community. More people move to the area, boosting the need for houses, restaurants, entertainment, and other amenities. “There’s a multiplier effect,” said Pandya.

Foreign investment also helps diversify a local economy. Foreign manufacturing companies often produce goods that are sold elsewhere in the country or even abroad, whereas local companies might be selling locally or regionally. Adding export-oriented producers helps diversify the economy, which helps when the state experiences any negative economic shocks.

“If a majority of firms produce goods for sale locally, then you haven’t really diversified your risk,” Pandya said. “So, it offers a source of resilience.”

THE VIRGINIA ADVANTAGE

Virginia’s appeal to foreign companies starts with an advantageous midAtlantic location. The Commonwealth also benefits from its proximity to policymakers in Washington, D.C., its ports and other infrastructure (see page 56), a relatively affordable cost of living, a strong network of universities, and a well-established reputation for being business-friendly. As Weidmüller USA President Bernd Schröder said when announcing the company’s most recent expansion, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to expand in a state known for a talented workforce, strong logistical benefits with access to Virginia ports, and strategically located to best service our partners.”

These qualities often put Virginia above some West Coast states, even for companies in Asia that are farther away geographically, he said.

In Northern Virginia, the Commonwealth’s most populated region and main commerce hub, an established concentration of tech, telecom, and biotech companies makes it an attractive investment destination for companies in those industries. “There’s a lot of historical momentum going back to the early days of technology, when companies like AOL and Nextel opened their corporate headquarters in Northern Virginia,” said Andrew Sherman, a partner at law firm Brown Rudnick in Washington, D.C., who specializes in the legal and strategic aspects of business growth.

Sherman added that Virginia’s longstanding pro-business reputation and quality-of-life factors can push the Commonwealth ahead of other states. For European companies, the relatively short time difference of 5–6 hours is advantageous.

Major foreign employers in Northern Virginia include air freight providers that make heavy use of Washington Dulles International Airport, including

Dutch aerospace company Airbus and German cargo airline Lufthansa Cargo. Other key FDI sectors in the region include automotive (Audi USA and Volkswagen Group of America, both subsidiaries of German companies), food and beverage (headquarters operations for the aforementioned Nestlé USA and Lidl US, the American arm of the German supermarket chain), and government contracting (Irish consulting firm Accenture, British defense firm BAE Systems, and Canadian IT and consulting firm CGI Inc.).

Jonathan Lazarow, a partner at Virginia-based law firm Ambrose, Mills, & Lazarow, said he works with foreign tech companies that could choose to be anywhere, including Silicon Valley in California, but choose Virginia because “in terms of innovation, it’s just as innovative.”

Foreign companies that come to the U.S. often need to find people with specialized knowledge in certain technologies. Virginia has a good reputation for helping companies find talent relevant to the local market, and the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program — honored by Business Facilities as the top customized workforce training program in the country — can help companies accelerate new facility startups through direct delivery of recruitment and training services.

The legal framework and economic incentives can help but, ultimately, it’s the informal network that is perhaps the most important factor in protecting or ensuring return on investment, Lazarow said. “Reputation matters way more in this environment than anything in a legal system or any kind of economic incentive. From a business standpoint, the most important thing is confidence that an investment will yield profit, and Virginia is getting that right.”

The International View of the American Value Proposition

A Conversation With Ambassador Mark Brzezinski

Ambassador Mark Brzezinski has served as the U.S. ambassador to Poland since 2021. He previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from 2011–2015.

VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi spoke with Ambassador Brzezinski about foreign direct investment, European perceptions of the business climate in the United States and Virginia, and what states can do to attract European investment.

Jason El Koubi: Just to kick things off, can you talk about the role of an ambassador in influencing foreign direct investment activity?

Mark Brzezinski: An ambassador has many roles that overlay with security and American defense that pertain to advancing democracy and our values, and to advancing American commercial success and American business interests. Both in Sweden and now in Poland, I’ve had the privilege of working with small, medium-sized, and large American companies investing abroad and taking the risk of expanding their business beyond America’s borders to advance their own profitability.

One of the roles of a U.S. ambassador and a U.S. mission overseas is to try to minimize the risk for that American corporate citizen investing abroad by

sharing information with them, using the power to convene that an ambassador has to build networks, and building alignments between American businesses and potential overseas counterparts.

It’s been my privilege to work alongside U.S. Department of Commerce colleagues in advancing that goal, and also with U.S. state governors. When I was in Sweden, I was visited by two Virginia governors. Gov. Bob McDonnell and Gov. Terry McAuliffe both visited me in Stockholm on missions geared toward advancing investment into Virginia. I’m pleased to say that some of my proudest moments as ambassador have been when we’ve landed really significant corporate deals that advance the American interest.

Here in Poland, one of my proudest successes is advancing the combination of Westinghouse and Bechtel to build

Poland’s first civil nuclear power plant. In 2023, that was the single largest commercial deal an American embassy helped broker anywhere in the world.

I’m a product of the private sector myself. I know what it means to build a business plan. I know about the struggle to make payroll. I know about the various challenges to make a company profitable, and so I love the role of an ambassador as it pertains to the private sector in the commercial context.

El Koubi: What’s the view from Europe on the United States as a destination for foreign direct investment? What are the kinds of things that are drawing companies in Poland and elsewhere in Europe to consider investments in the United States — for example, as a Polish company, Press Glass, has done in Virginia multiple times?

Brzezinski: The view of the U.S. market, whether in Poland or Sweden or elsewhere, is so positive. The American economy is synonymous with innovation, ingenuity, and creativity. I always emphasize to potential investors to study the United States. It’s not monolithic. It is very diverse, and opportunity comes in so many different ways, but there is endless opportunity in America.

Frankly, I think the biggest stumbling block for companies abroad with regard to investing in America is where to start. It’s an extremely diverse economy and, in many ways, overwhelming. That’s something that an embassy overseas can help a potential foreign direct investor into the United States to begin to pinpoint. Where would be the best alignment in terms of workforce, in terms of the product I want to manufacture in the United States, with regard to its destination for sale? That is the view of the American marketplace from abroad, and it’s therefore something that an American ambassador and an American embassy can help facilitate.

El Koubi: That’s really interesting. It reminds me of comments made in a similar conversation I had with Dennis Meseroll. He was offering the Asian perspective and talked about how large and diverse the United States is as a market. In many ways, that economic diversity is amplified by the U.S. federal system, where you have states that offer different advantages for someone looking to invest in the United States.

Brzezinski: I think that’s exactly right, and there are also unique things about the United States. Take, for example, the clustering around American research universities — the small, medium-sized, large businesses that build up around college towns and around large research universities, whether it’s the University of Virginia or Harvard or the University of Michigan or the University of California at Berkeley or Stanford.

There’s cross-pollination between biotech companies in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the University of Virginia — a symbiotic relationship that can really help advance a company’s profitability. That is the kind of thing that you don’t see frequently elsewhere, and in some countries, you don’t see it at all.

AMBASSADOR MARK BRZEZINSKI U.S. Ambassador to Poland

You’d be surprised how uniquely American that is, how little knowledge there is overseas on the part of companies thinking of expanding into the United States, and how keenly interesting it is for, say, a Swedish or a Polish biotech company to understand that there’s cross-pollination between biotech companies in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the University of Virginia — a symbiotic relationship that can really help advance a company’s profitability. That is the kind of thing that you don’t see frequently elsewhere, and in some countries, you don’t see it at all. It is one of the great multipliers about investing in the United States that can scale a $10 million company to a $1 billion company in not too long of a time. There are unique things about America that need to be explained by putative foreign investors that an ambassador can undertake.

El Koubi: You’ve touched on a number of U.S. strengths that you articulate to companies that are considering investing in the United States. What are some of the other things that you talk about when you’re giving the sales pitch?

Brzezinski: There’s something really great about the professionalism and the rules-based legal context in which American companies thrive. You know what will be the case with your business in a week’s time, in a month’s time, in a year’s time, and the kind of arbitrariness that you might see overseas doesn’t happen in our legally certain, rule-oflaw-based system. That may sound to an

American business like part of the norm, but it’s exceptional and important.

In the end, investors and innovators thrive when they know that their intellectual property can’t be stolen from them. They can be assured that next month the tax collector won’t arrive at their doorstep when all of a sudden they’re being charged $200,000 in unexpected tax. Our rules-based, transparent, legally accountable system has been shown to allow the private sector to flourish.

El Koubi: You’ve encountered many companies looking to invest in Europe, but also many companies in Europe that are looking to invest in the United States. How would you describe their priorities? What’s the language that they use? What do they tend to focus on?

Brzezinski: The companies that want to expand into the United States are profoundly impressed by the innovative ecosystem of the United States. There’s something unique about the American process of development and R&D innovation that overseas businesspeople see that they want to participate in.

Take, for example, the Tysons Corner/ Northern Virginia tech corridor. So many innovations and discoveries have emerged from that tech corridor because companies there have either internal R&D systems or they’re part of an incubator system of companies in a local community that allows people to share and develop ideas. That is something

particularly attractive to overseas companies. They’ve developed an idea, they’ve commercialized it by forming a company, and now they want to scale. The American marketplace is second to none in terms of the context as it’s seen by overseas businesspeople to send their product and their business to.

I would also highlight the industriousness of the American worker. Americans work hard. People overseas know that. They value an ethic that produces profitability, and they want to align their company’s culture with that culture. That’s also tremendously attractive.

El Koubi: What advice do you have for individual states that are looking to attract foreign direct investment from other regions of the world? What are some of the policy decisions that public officials on the ground should be considering?

When [overseas companies] come to a place like Virginia, everything is new ... A state government that facilitates an arrival process for an overseas investor will save that overseas investor literally years and years of time by pointing them in the right direction.

AMBASSADOR MARK BRZEZINSKI

U.S. Ambassador to Poland

Brzezinski: First of all, when it comes to policy decisions either for government officials or the private sector, go overseas and see what others are doing. Introduce yourself to companies overseas to see what possible alignments there are with regard to a particular aspect or region of Virginia, whether it’s an ag company or a shipping company or a tech company. Go overseas, see what others are doing, and see how it could synchronize in Virginia’s conditions.

development make it a policy to work closely with SelectUSA and the Foreign Commercial Service. They provide valuable support to the work that economic development officials do to attract FDI to the United States. The opportunities for investment attraction at the annual SelectUSA Investment Summit, which this year is in June outside Washington, D.C., are exceptional.

There’s something really great about the professionalism and the rules-based legal context in which American companies thrive. You know what will be the case with your business in a week’s time, in a month’s time, in a year’s time, and the kind of arbitrariness that you might see overseas doesn’t happen in our legally certain, ruleof-law-based system. That may sound to an American business like part of the norm, but it’s exceptional and important.

AMBASSADOR MARK BRZEZINSKI U.S. Ambassador to Poland

Second, I think that it’s important for the state government to provide as facilitated an arrival process for overseas companies as possible because you have to remember that when they come to a place like Virginia, everything is new — how to incorporate, how to set up a system to pay taxes, where to find employees, how to align with other businesses in chambers of commerce, how to fully exploit business promotion ecosystems in the state. A state government that facilitates an arrival process for an overseas investor will save that overseas investor literally years and years of time by pointing them in the right direction.

Third, harness the jewels of the state: the university system, the localized chambers of commerce, the various business networks a state has, and when potential foreign participants in the economy come to Virginia, introduce them. Those conversations can produce business instantly.

Lastly, I would recommend that any public official focused on economic

El Koubi: You make Virginia your home when you’re not representing our country overseas. When you think about Virginia, when you get to spend some time here, what are some of the things you most enjoy?

Brzezinski: I love the Shenandoah Mountains. I’ve probably canoed the Shenandoah River 50 times. I own land in Rappahannock County where I do a lot of hunting and fishing. I’m an outdoorsy guy. That’s what I like to do, and that’s why I like Virginia.

El Koubi: Ambassador Mark Brzezinski, who serves our country representing us in Poland, it has been such a pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you very much.

Brzezinski: Thank you, Jason. For the full interview, visit www.vedp.org/Podcasts

Perpetuating a

外人直接投資 Rock-Solid Relationship

A Conversation With Ambassador Alexander Yui

Ambassador Alexander Yui took over as the Taiwanese representative to the United States at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) in December 2023.

VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi spoke with Ambassador Yui about his experiences in the job and the trade relationship between Virginia and Taiwan.

Jason El Koubi: You’re quite new to this exciting post at TECRO. How has your experience working with the United States gone so far?

Alexander Yui: It’s been a wonderful experience, but our relationship with the United States is one of the most important relationships for Taiwan, and I’m very honored that I was picked to take this job. Pragmatic and substantive relations between Taiwan and the United States have been growing these past years, and the support that we get from you is bipartisan. When people describe U.S.-Taiwan relations, often they use the expression “rock solid,” and I think that’s a very good way to describe it.

El Koubi: I’d love to hear a little bit more about the role of an ambassador, particularly in terms of your role in influencing foreign direct investment decisions that get made. Taiwan is one of the fastest-growing sources of foreign direct investment into the United States. You came into this role at a very important time.

Yui: A very important part that affects people directly is trade, direct investment, and commerce. What my office does here in the United States, as with any embassy, is to offer our business community opportunities that they can have in the United States and vice versa, to offer U.S. companies to learn more about what they can invest in

Taiwan. So it’s a two-way job. What my office is doing nowadays is coordinating closely with the U.S. administration and Congress the passage — hopefully very soon — of the avoidance of double taxation agreement between Taiwan and the United States. Once that agreement passes, it’ll be a great incentive both to U.S. and Taiwanese companies to invest.

El Koubi: You’ve mentioned that the United States and Taiwan enjoy a very strong economic relationship. Can you go in a little bit more depth there?

Yui: In global terms, we’re your eighthlargest trading partner, and the United States is our second-largest trading partner. Last year, our trading volume was around $120 billion. So it’s larger than the trade that the United States has with India, larger than what you have with Vietnam, the Netherlands, France, Italy, etc. Since 2020, between the United States and Taiwan, we’ve had this Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue. It’s between both sides to find ways to enhance this trading partnership. We also have the Technology Trade and Investment Collaboration to enhance our trade and investment in the tech industry.

Nowadays our partnership is, more and more, focused on technology, on 5G semiconductors, on electric mobility. Many of our companies, like TSMC, GlobalWafers, etc., come to the United States to invest, and vice versa. Many of your U.S. companies have gone to Taiwan to do similar things.

Taiwan is Virginia’s ninth-largest export market and 10th-largest import source market. The two-way trade is almost $2 billion between Virginia and Taiwan. We have many, many Taiwanese companies who are already investing in Virginia — mainly tech companies.

El Koubi: One of the big things that VEDP did last year, with support from the governor and others, was to establish an office in Taipei, in the capital of Taiwan. We have Sarah Liu there, our director of

Most important of all is that we are like-minded countries. Our people think alike, we work alike, and we follow rules and regulations. That’s important in terms of international trade, because some countries don’t do that.

AMBASSADOR ALEXANDER YUI Taiwanese Representative to the United States, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

strategic projects and lead generation for Taiwan, who represents Virginia full-time now. We’re very proud of that and we look forward to deepening the relationship that you just described.

Yui: That is very important. We had the pleasure of having Gov. Glenn Youngkin visit Taiwan with a delegation in April of last year, and he announced the opening of that office, which opened formally in September. That’s an important step in promoting our foreign direct investment relations.

El Koubi: Thank you for the terrific partnership in getting that started. It’s been a big year for Taiwan in other ways. There was a recent presidential election. Can you comment on what you see as the major consequences of the recent Taiwanese elections on global trade and on the economy of economic relationships?

Yui: On Jan. 13, we held our elections to elect our president, vice president, and our legislative body. The elections were praised generally by the United States, by the European Union, etc. Having had these series of free elections throughout the years brings stability

and steadiness to our economy, and it shows the guarantee to the investors that Taiwan is a country that can be trusted, dependable, and we play by the rules. Certainly, there are many challenges. We are challenged continuously by mainland China. But assessment companies and risk companies continually keep putting Taiwan as the best-grade place to be.

There is a reason why, in Taiwan, our semiconductor companies produce 62% of our world’s semiconductors and 92% of the advanced semiconductors. Taiwan is a high-tech hub, and more than 50% of world trade goes through the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan is a relevant place to be. By having free elections and by choosing our leaders every four years, we have a smooth and steady transition. It shows that Taiwan is a stable, trustful place, and that foreign investors can depend on and come to Taiwan to invest and do business.

El Koubi: What is the view of the U.S. market from the Taiwanese perspective? What draws Taiwanese companies to make major business investments in the United States?

Yui: We are important trading partners and this collaboration between Taiwanese and American companies is long-standing. At Tesla, 75% percent of the supply chain comes from Taiwan. It’s one example of the close collaboration between U.S. companies and Taiwanese companies, one of many. TSMC is highly involved with U.S. companies as well.

We speak of the G20. But if there was a G21, Taiwan would be in it. We’re the 21st-largest economy in the world. Our economy is larger than 22 of the 27 countries in the European Union. One of the most important destinations for our outbound investments is the United States. You have a set of clear rules, you have a good labor force. Technologically, we’re at par, and complementary in terms of our trading relationships. We are like-minded countries. We value the same things —

freedom, democracy, these things that we hold dear — and we learn a lot from the United States.

El Koubi: You talk to Taiwanese companies that are considering investing in the United States. You also talk to American companies that are looking to invest in Taiwan. Give us a little insight into those conversations.

Yui: My main job so far has been to talk to the U.S. executive branch, to Congress, and to many institutions here. But for companies, both in the U.S. and Taiwan, it’s a very strong bond not only because of values, but also because we are important trading partners. We talk about supply chain reorganization, nearshoring, or putting production plants in different places because of the COVID experience and certain challenges between mainland China and Taiwan. Our companies are relocating to other places and reorganizing the supply chain. This is a good opportunity between the U.S. and Taiwan to be further partners in this supply chain partnership.

You have Silicon Valley, we have Hsinchu Science Park, etc., and we work together very closely in this area. We call that human capacity-building, both in Taiwan and the United States. For example, in Virginia you have Virginia Tech and you produce very high-quality engineers. So it would be complementary to Taiwanese companies when they’re thinking of investing in Virginia because you have a very good labor force.

We mentioned Gov. Youngkin’s visit to Taipei last April. While he was there, he signed a memorandum of understanding on trading and investment between Virginia and Taiwan. That’s also a very relevant and important thing because it shows the support coming from governorship and Taiwanese government to support our mutual companies to work together better.

El Koubi: You’ve already pointed

toward several opportunities to deepen the relationship between the United States and Taiwan, as well as some helpful tactical advice for companies looking to explore investment opportunities and trade opportunities. What sort of advice do you have for policymakers here in the United States, those at the federal level, of course, where I know you’re deeply engaged, but also elected officials at the state level, or even at the local level? What can they do to improve the relationship, to draw more investment from Taiwan and other parts of the world, and to also reciprocate and deepen the relationship?

Yui: Most important of all is that we are like-minded countries. Our people think alike, we work alike, and we follow rules and regulations. That’s important in terms of international trade, because some countries don’t do that. Many of our engineers trained in the United States. I went to college in the United States. So we have a very natural affinity. It’s a very obvious destination or partner. It’s important to promote people-to-people contact. For example, Virginia has set up this trade office in Taipei. By signing trade agreements between our governments, we create structures that will allow us to give more incentives to both sides — avoidance of double taxation, trade agreements, and those things that, as politicians or governments, if we can do, will facilitate trade bilaterally.

The last thing is to promote, to foster, to encourage our companies to go to each other’s country, know the market, know the people, know the place. By going to trade fairs, or when we have companies that come to the United States to take advantage, to meet with them, to find opportunities to work together.

El Koubi: It is a very special relationship that we enjoy. Ambassador Alexander Yui, thank you so much for your leadership, for your partnership, and for the time today.

62%

of the world’s semiconductors are produced in Taiwan

Source: Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

92%

of the world’s advanced semiconductors are produced in Taiwan

Source: Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

50%

of world trade passes through the Taiwan Strait

Source: Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

Yui: It’s a pleasure. And I look forward, when I have more leisure time, to continue visiting the Virginia wine country nearby. They’re excellent wines.

For the full interview, visit www.vedp.org/Podcasts

The Best of Both Worlds

In 2020, roughly 12 years after Volkswagen relocated its North American headquarters from the Detroit area to Fairfax County, the company faced a choice. With the end of the lease on its Herndon office space looming, would it move to Atlanta, where its Porsche subsidiary is located, or another city?

Ultimately, amenities such as the strong regional talent pool and standard of living convinced Volkswagen to remain in Virginia, according to Elmar Licharz, Ph.D., chief financial officer for Volkswagen North American Region and Volkswagen Group of America.

Following a fortuitous call from Fannie Mae, Volkswagen was able to take over some of its excess square footage in a mixeduse development elsewhere in Fairfax County, which allowed the auto company to consolidate its financial services and operations for Audi, Bentley, and multiple other brands.

Volkswagen is just one major foreign company to repeatedly decide to operate in Virginia. Given the importance of foreign direct investment to the Commonwealth’s economy, VEDP operates four offices overseas to strengthen business relationships between Virginia and foreign companies, including mutual trade and investment initiatives. The newest of those offices opened in September 2023 in Taiwan; the others are in Europe (based in Germany), Japan, and South Korea. VEDP’s international offices support company executives regarding the site selection process in the United States — confidentially and free of charge.

COMPLEX LOCATION CONSIDERATIONS

Members of the automobile industry, Licharz said, sometimes place an emphasis on situating corporate functions near their manufacturing activities. Volkswagen, though, appreciates the mobility its Virginia venue has provided.

“There’s a logic that there is value if you are close to your production area because people get a feel for what kind of business [you’re] working in,” Licharz said. “But we have over 600 Volkswagen and 300 Audi dealers all over the country. We need to travel a lot, and with Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport around the corner, that’s absolutely helping [us] conduct business.”

While Licharz isn’t sure who advised the government-sponsored mortgage finance entity that his company might be a match for its additional space, Volkswagen has benefited from similarly opportune connections over the years.

“I can’t tell you how Fannie Mae got the information that we were looking,” he said. “But obviously, these areas where businesspeople meet and align interests are very, very helpful. [VEDP] helps us be part of the community so we have [a] broad business context.”

Virginia provides access to a well-educated workforce today, and the state’s education system supports growth for our future needs.

C. JEFFREY KNITTEL Chairman and CEO, Airbus Americas

FOSTERING GLOBAL GROWTH

While VEDP’s international offices have helped secure numerous investments from companies in those regions and helped smooth the path for countless others, Virginia’s main selling points remain its top-notch workforce, convenient location, and friendliness to business. The Commonwealth’s transportation infrastructure (see page 56) has also been a boon for a number of companies — including Canon Virginia, Inc., an offshoot of digital imaging solutions provider Canon U.S.A., Inc.

According to President and CEO Shingo Shigeta, the Japanese company chose to center its domestic manufacturing in Newport News in 1985 due to the local infrastructure — including nearby Interstate 64, adjacent to the company’s facility, the Port of Virginia, and nearby air terminals — and numerous colleges, universities and military installations that provide a steady flow of talent.

“That’s been critical for us,” said Shigeta, who cited nearby universities Christopher Newport University, the College of William & Mary, and Old Dominion University and Tidewater and Virginia Peninsula community colleges. “That’s been a good way to get resources [for] internships and hiring. We [also] have a big military population; a lot of spouses or retiring military [members] have come through [the company].”

To supplement that talent, Canon Virginia worked with VEDP to establish a number of initatives, including an 8,000-hour, four-year toolmaking apprenticeship program.

“They helped us put that together,” Shigeta said. “When we built an automated cartridge facility, they helped us stand up a workforce development center to retrain not only some of our existing workforce, but [also] new hires for high-speed automation manufacturing.”

After learning it was in the running for the corporation’s new U.S. toner cartridge facility site in 2008, Canon Virginia immediately reached out to VEDP, who Shigeta says brought workforce development partners like the Virginia Community College System to the table.

“That really made a great partnership,” he said. “We were able to then call our global headquarters, Canon Inc. in Japan, and

say, ‘Look what we can do and how quickly we can do it,’ because from groundbreaking to grand opening, it took exactly one year.”

Canon Virginia solely produced the company’s line of copiers and printers when it began operating in the Commonwealth nearly 40 years ago. It has since transitioned to provide contract manufacturing services to businesses in industries including aerospace, food preservation, and life sciences — thanks in part to introductions from VEDP.

“We have a variety of products being developed here,” Shigeta said. “Many of our customers and partners are closely located and easy to communicate with and travel to, in addition to Canon U.S.A.’s headquarters in New York. The location is also a good advantage [of being in Virginia].”

GEOGRAPHY AND OTHER ADVANTAGES

In addition to The Port of Virginia access that enables Italy-based Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group (MZB) to import green coffee beans, the main component in its Hills Bros.®, Chock full o’Nuts®, Kauai Coffee®, Segafredo Zanetti®, and other products, the coffee corporation relies on road and rail systems to distribute them through the United States.

The company’s primary roasting operations and U.S. headquarters are located in Suffolk. MZB acquired the roasting facility from the Sara Lee Corporation in 2005, and the company continues to expand its operations in Suffolk.

“We try to ship as much of our product destined to our own distribution center or, in a lot of cases, to larger customers located west of the Mississippi through intermodal rail to reduce freight costs,” Chief Financial Officer John Phifer said. “A big advantage of our Virginia location is the efficient shipping lanes from the East Coast and the MidAtlantic area.”

Over the years, VEDP has assisted MZB’s efforts to increase its reach outside of the United States, following the path of numerous international companies that have located in Virginia. When the company began exploring selling its products in China, one of VEDP’s U.S.-based international trade managers paired the company with a dedicated representative based in the country who was able to help the company coordinate the documentation requirements to license more than 25 of its coffee products for export.

When trying to enter a new market, having an on-site contact who knows how to navigate the local business culture can be key, said Brian Kubicki, MZB’s senior vice president of business development and managing director.

“It’s certainly helpful to know that you’re walking into meetings that have been set up in advance, with contacts that we know are legitimate,” Kubicki said. “We’ve had some experience going into foreign countries and meeting with people who may not have the capabilities they claim to have. It’s good to have a resource like VEDP that can perform much of this work on our behalf.”

LEVERAGING

LOCAL BUSINESS

San-J International originally set up a sales office in Virginia in 1978 to import the soy sauce it’s been manufacturing for more than 200 years in Japan. As its sales volume grew, the company built a factory in Henrico County — its first manufacturing operation in the U.S. — in 1987.

In tandem with the local labor market, environmental factors — notably, Virginia’s temperature range, humidity level, and four distinct seasons — made the state a good fit for San-J, according to President Takashi Sato, an eighth-generation member of the family that founded the company. Being in Virginia has also provided indirect benefits, according to Sato, like central embassy access.

“A foreign-capitalized company like ours has to deal with the country of origin in various situations,” he said. “In addition to being quicker to process, in most cases, the personnel assigned to the embassy in Washington, D.C., are often higher in rank than those assigned to consulates in other locations, which tends to make it easier to handle issues.”

REGIONAL EFFICIENCIES

When Airbus North America moved its headquarters from New York City to Northern Virginia in 1987, the aerospace company consisted of just a few dozen employees working from a single location, according to C. Jeffrey Knittel, chairman and CEO of Airbus Americas.

Currently, the organization maintains four major sites in the state — its U.S. Space & Defense headquarters in Arlington County, the Satair USA, Inc., spare parts fulfillment center and administrative offices in Loudoun County, and its North American headquarters and Metron Aviation air traffic management services, which are both located in Fairfax County.

Virginia is uniquely situated within the national capital region, Knittel said, putting the company close to congressional leaders, policy decisionmakers, regulatory agencies, members of the international diplomatic and business community, and the U.S. Department of Defense, a key customer.

Collectively, Knittel said, the state’s advantageous infrastructure, quality workforce, and positive business environment have all contributed to Airbus’ success.

“Virginia provides access to a welleducated workforce today, and the state’s education system supports growth for our future needs,” he said. “Our longevity and growth in Virginia are [a] testament to the fact the state has met, and continues to meet, all of our needs.”

But we have over 600 Volkswagen and 300 Audi dealers all over the country. We need to travel a lot, and with Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport around the corner, that’s absolutely helping [us] conduct business.

ELMAR LICHARZ, PH.D. Chief Financial Officer, Volkswagen North American Region and Volkswagen Group of America

Canon Virginia, Inc., Newport News

San-J International, Inc., Henrico County

Volkswagen Group of America, Fairfax County

A Center of International Business in the New River Valley

Pulaski County grows local economy by embracing foreign direct investment

THE WORD IS OUT that Pulaski County is a “center for international business,” says Jonathan Sweet, administrator for the western Virginia county. Among the 33,000 people who call Pulaski County home is a large community of expatriates hailing from countries around the world.

“We have a diverse foreign population here because we are home to so many international companies,” Sweet said. “We’re a melting pot of diversity and we love it.”

Sweden-based Volvo Group has had a sizable impact on that melting pot. Expats from Sweden, Belgium, and Brazil support Volvo’s local workforce of 3,600 people. Since rolling its first trucks off its production line in the town of Dublin in 1982, the manufacturer has grown to become the largest private employer in the New River Valley.

What started as a final assembly plant producing 20 trucks a day is now a fully integrated factory, performing welding, painting, and final assembly for all Volvo

trucks produced for the North American market. In 2023, Volvo produced more than 32,000 heavy-duty trucks, said Koen Knippenberg, vice president and general manager for Volvo Group’s New River Valley operations.

A wealth of local resources helped prompt Volvo to select its Dublin plant as the site for a significant expansion in 2019. The $400 million investment prepared the plant to produce a fully reimagined Volvo VNL on a platform that will serve as the basis for all upcoming Volvo Trucks technologies. It also marked Volvo’s biggest investment in a single plant and established Dublin as the company’s largest truck manufacturing site in the world.

As a center for Volvo’s future vehicle development, connectivity is essential for the Dublin plant. “To give you an idea of the magnitude of material that has to arrive here daily, we need around 200 trailers of it a day,” Knippenberg said. A location near the intersections

Volvo Trucks, Pulaski County

of Interstates 81 and 77, in conjunction with the port of entry at the New River Valley Airport, simplifies the process of importing materials from global suppliers.

In addition to Volvo, foreign direct investment in Pulaski County includes companies as diverse as Mexican baking giant Bimbo Bakeries, Canadian and Mexican vegetable grower Red Sun Farms, German candlemakers GALA GROUP, and Irish building product manufacturer James Hardie. Even that list undersells the impact of foreign direct investment in the community — Colombian packaging manufacturer Grupo Phoenix selected Pulaski County for its headquarters in 2010 and expanded that facility twice over the next few years, although the company has since been sold to Pennsylvaniabased TekniPlex.

RED SUN FARMS PUTS DOWN ROOTS IN DUBLIN

The geographic advantages Knippenberg alluded to helped narrow the field of potential locations when Red Sun Farms was evaluating U.S. locations for expanding its high-tech greenhouse operations in 2013. The tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers grown and distributed from its Dublin greenhouse are sent to retailers and foodservice providers from South Carolina up through Pennsylvania. The location also provides proximity to certain key supplies, such as corrugate and fertilizers.

“Our logistics and connectivity to locally and regionally owned enterprises and OEMs, along with our supply chain, create a lot of opportunity for foreign companies to come to Pulaski County and access business opportunities,” Sweet said.

Yet it was community support that truly made Pulaski stand out, according to Carlos Visconti, CEO of Red Sun Farms. “What pushed Dublin out in front was the level of enthusiasm and cooperation from the local community and authorities,” he said.

For Sweet, that’s just part of doing business in Pulaski County. “We listen to what the business community needs and what our prospects need and we try to solve their problems,” he said.

Today, Red Sun employs more than 80 people in its greenhouse and distribution center in Dublin, and its skilled workforce has become another leading advantage of its Virginia site. As Visconti put it, the company found early on that there was a limited existing agriculture workforce on which it could draw. However, the county’s robust resources helped the Canadian company equip employees with the specialized skillsets needed to operate a high-tech controlled environment.

“Red Sun Farms has taken advantage of our proximity to Virginia Tech to recruit interns from their agriculture technology students,” Visconti said. Virginia Tech — home to the country’s 10th-best agriculture program, according to College Factual — and Radford University are both less than 30 miles

from the Pulaski County lines, providing companies with access to a tremendous depth of workforce development and research capabilities.

The high-tech greenhouse has also worked with New River Valley Community College (NRCC) and career technical education centers at local high schools to tailor training opportunities. To craft these various programs of study, Red Sun’s leadership team in Dublin has served on educational advisory boards on subjects including innovations in agriculture, agriculture and applied economics, and business and industry leadership, among others.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS CREATE WORKFORCE SYNERGIES

For Sweet, “NRCC is Pulaski County’s biggest asset when it comes to workforce training programs.” The school offers certificates in mechatronics, machine operations, advanced manufacturing, and industrial maintenance to support manufacturers in the region. Sweet

Red Sun Farms, Pulaski County

Our logistics and connectivity to locally and regionally owned enterprises and OEMs, along with our supply chain, create a lot of opportunity for foreign companies to come to Pulaski County and access business opportunities.

JONATHAN SWEET County Administrator, Pulaski County

pointed out that the school’s location near the county’s industrial center adds to the ease and convenience of accessing the customized training programs the community college develops.

Volvo has taken a similar approach to workforce development. The company attracts interns and graduates from Virginia Tech and Radford University each year. However, its demand for specialized skillsets has also pushed the company to connect with students through middle and high school career forums, building awareness about the range of skills needed to support advanced manufacturing. It has also hosted middle and high schoolers participating in the FIRST Tech Challenge, where student teams design, build, and program robots with which to compete against other teams. Events like this provide an opportunity for students to see and get excited about real-world applications for robotics. This interest is then further fueled through NRCC’s advanced manufacturing and skilled trades program.

Now, with the new VNL platform taking off, Knippenberg says that the plant is planning to expand hiring this year. And it’s because the new full-bodied line is fully automated that the plant has greater need than ever for skilled tradespeople. Automation has fueled the need for people able to operate and maintain this advanced equipment.

Some of those people may come from offices around the world. But as Volvo, Red Sun, and the rest of Pulaski’s international employers have found, the county offers more than a strong business ecosystem. It’s a welcoming community and recreation-rich home.

“We’ve got a diverse offering of places to live and things to do,” Sweet said. He added, “Many of these international employees value outdoor recreation and we have an abundance of it, so we often hear that it feels like home when they’re here.”

Red Sun Farms, Pulaski County

THE LEGO GROUP BUILDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE IN VIRGINIA

The LEGO Group’s new manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County is designed to support the company’s sustainability ambitions. From building practices to construction materials to operating functions to landscaping, the LEGO Group’s only U.S. manufacturing facility is poised to be a showcase of sustainable practices and design when it opens in 2027.

“What we plan to do, and it’s part of our LEGO ambition, is to first reduce the amount of energy that our buildings need,” said Cecilia Fernandez, LEGO’s Virginia-based sustainability construction manager. “So we try to make our production lines and our buildings run in a much more efficient way. What we can’t reduce, we compensate for with renewable energy.”

The site will be the sixth international manufacturing facility for the Danish toy company. “The U.S. is a growing market for the LEGO Group,” Fernandez said. With the new facility, “We can produce closer to where we’re actually selling the products. We see it as a win-win.”

The company plans to invest more than $1 billion to construct the carbon-neutral plant in Meadowville Technology Park. The 1.7-million-sq.-ft. precision manufacturing facility will be powered by its own solar farm and create more than 1,760 new jobs for the Greater Richmond area.

SUSTAINABILITY KEY TO THE VIRGINIA SOLUTION

Virginia’s commitment to renewable energy and sustainability was a major factor in the LEGO Group’s selection of the Meadowville site. As CEO Niels B. Christiansen said at the announcement, “We were impressed with all Virginia has to offer, from access to a skilled workforce, support for high-quality manufacturers, and great transport links. We appreciate support for our ambition to build a carbon-neutral-run facility.”

Sustainability begins with construction. Concrete, steel, glass, drywall — all of the material selections will focus on lowering the carbon footprint, such as by using recycled content whenever possible, Fernandez said. In addition, the entire office building, where site administrators will work, will be made from engineered mass timber — thick, compressed layers of wood that match the high-strength ratings of concrete and steel, but are lighter weight and significantly less carbon-intensive than those materials.

“Our early calculations show that we can save up to 40% of the carbon embedded in the building by using mass timber versus using ordinary concrete or steel,” Fernandez said.

The company plans to use wood from areas close to Virginia in the mass timber, from species native to the area. The wood will also be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which confirms that the wood was harvested sustainably in a way that protects fragile ecosystems, respects native cultures and economies, and does not decimate forests.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUSINESS CLIMATE

The buildings will be constructed for optimum energy efficiency, with increased insulation to retain heat in the winter and cool air in the summer, and automated building monitoring systems to control temperature and report electricity usage. Sensors will be able to

detect when a room is empty and will subsequently switch off lights and adjust heating and cooling systems where it’s possible to do so and not interfere with manufacturing processes.

“We want to make sure we’re not just blasting heating or cooling everywhere in the building even though the building is empty,” Fernandez said. Similarly, “Why have rooms lit up when there’s no one on the entire floor?”

Monitors in the factory will also track humidity levels, which is critical for LEGO’s new packaging materials. After years of packing LEGO bricks in plastic bags, the company has committed to phasing out single-use plastic packaging. At the Richmond plant, this means producing paper-based bags to hold the play bricks. But these materials are delicate and vulnerable to humidity changes, Fernandez said, so the company will install monitors to make sure certain buildings maintain an optimum humidity at all times.

THE SOLAR SOLUTION

The entire facility will be powered by an on-site solar plant comprising as many as 40,000 ground panels and 20,000 roof panels, covering an area of 85 acres, for a total capacity of 30–35 megawatts, Fernandez said.

The LEGO Group is aiming for the highest green-building certification possible — at least LEED Gold, hopefully LEED Platinum. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a certification that companies or builders can apply to receive for their projects. LEED projects are rated on how effectively they reduce their contribution to climate change, enhance human health, impact water resources, affect biodiversity, relate to the green economy, and affect community and natural resources.

LEED Platinum status is a lofty goal for manufacturing operations like the LEGO Group’s because the certification

is designed primarily for office or residential buildings, Fernandez said. For instance, projects get points for having more windows, or being able to easily adjust the temperature, but neither are possible in the factory.

The company is also looking to secure WELL certification — which assesses the health and wellness of people who work at the plant — for the project. This means features like a central staircase that entices employees to take the stairs rather than use an elevator, lots of indoor plants to foster employee wellbeing, and healthy food offerings.

Sustainability and wellness don’t stop at the facility door. The LEGO Group plans to install landscaping that protects and restores the natural habitat. The facility is designed to be water-neutral, meaning that rainwater falling on the site will be captured as much as possible and used for everything except human consumption, to include toilet flushing, irrigation, cleaning, and humidification inside the buildings. The production facility also aims to send zero waste to the landfill by partnering with various sub-suppliers who can either use or properly dispose of the waste.

To build a sustainable workforce, the company engaged the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, a workforce initiative created by VEDP

in collaboration with higher education partners. The program is designed to accelerate new facility startups through direct delivery of recruitment and training services fully customized to a company’s unique products, processes, equipment, standards, and culture. Last year, Business Facilities named the program the No. 1 customized workforce training program in the nation.

The first Talent Accelerator service delivered to the LEGO Group, a customized recruitment website that went live with the project announcement, drew more than 3,000 job candidates within 36 hours. Since then, the Talent Accelerator team has produced recruiting and training videos, screened candidates, and delivered more than 2,600 hours of job-specific training for the LEGO Group’s initial hires. This support, delivered in collaboration with Brightpoint Community College and the Community College Workforce Alliance, will continue through the opening of the permanent facility.

With the main facility under construction, the company currently employs about 200 people at a temporary packing facility in nearby Colonial Heights. That facility opened in November. When the main plant comes online in 2027, the people now at the temporary facility will transfer over to the permanent location.

“They’re starting to learn about the LEGO culture and values,” Fernandez said. “And they will actually then be the ones who will model and share those values to new employees at the permanent facility.”

The LEGO Group rendering, Chesterfield County

Key Factors in FDI Decisions

A Conversation With Jasjit Singh

Jasjit Singh is the executive director of SelectUSA, a U.S. government program housed within the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration that works to attract foreign direct investment to the United States. VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi spoke with Singh about trends in foreign direct investment and SelectUSA’s work to drive FDI activity.

Jason El Koubi: Can you give us a high-level overview of what SelectUSA does — its mission and the vision?

Jasjit Singh: SelectUSA’s predecessor was called Invest in America, which was established in 2007 as the primary U.S. government mechanism to facilitate foreign direct investment. President Obama established SelectUSA via executive order in 2011. SelectUSA is housed in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. Our mission is to facilitate job-creating investment into the United States and raise awareness of the critical role that foreign direct investment plays in a vibrant U.S. economy.

SelectUSA’s investment specialists are headquartered in Washington, D.C., and we work with over 1,300 global staff in U.S. embassies and councils around the world, as well as over 100 locations across the United States. Two programs that I’m very proud of are

the SelectUSA Tech program, which focuses on supporting international startups to find a home in the U.S., and the Select Global Women in Tech program, which supports international women founders by providing them with mentorship and programming to support their investment journeys into the United States.

As you know, through VEDP we often go on international road shows to tout SelectUSA to foreign companies. There is just such a huge appetite at this moment to invest in America. Our specialists in international markets are experiencing unmatched interest in our services, so it’s really an exciting time to be investing in America.

El Koubi: Give us a sense of how SelectUSA works with states and localities to draw investment. You’re obviously focused on the United States overall, but how do you work with different locations across our diverse country?

Singh: We have two types of clients. Foreign clients who are establishing or expanding their operations in the United States, and we have economic development organizations (EDOs), which include U.S., state, regional, tribal, and local-level organizations.

We support EDOs specifically in a few ways. We provide them with connectivity to international investors through events we host year-round, both domestically and internationally.

We also provide EDOs with assistance in navigating the federal government.

So, many times, our EDO partners will need information related to any number of topics, maybe workforce development, site selection planning, visas, permitting, or incentives. While SelectUSA doesn’t lead on those topics, we are happy to provide connections.

And third, I mentioned connectivity.

The platform we’re best known for is the SelectUSA Investment Summit. This annual summit, which will take place this year June 23–26 just outside of Washington, D.C., brings together our international clients and EDOs all under one roof.

Last year, we had a record-breaking 4,900 participants, which included 2,300 international companies from 83 different markets. And on the EDO side, we have representation from nearly every EDO at the state and territory levels, including 16 governors. This is the single best opportunity for EDOs to gain access directly to international investors. And I routinely hear from EDOs that this is the one event they don’t miss because of the unparalleled lead generation they get.

From an international investor perspective, this summit provides international companies the

opportunity to develop and accelerate their strategies with information from industry experts. We have over 100 sessions featuring topics like finance incentives and soft landing programs. These investors can not only meet with the states and territories, but they can take advantage of connecting with accelerators, incubators, and potential funders and partners.

El Koubi: You mentioned that you focus on two different groups, supporting EDOs and other partners in the United States to cultivate FDI, but then also the companies themselves that are considering a location in the U.S. How do you do that?

Singh: We focus on providing our clients with actionable information that can assist a company’s business operations in the United States. We have off-the-shelf products available on our website 24/7, such as the SelectUSA Investor Guide, a first-step resource for a company that’s interested in making a U.S. business investment.

Our website features market fact sheets, which provide overviews on specific industries within markets, states, and territories, and state-specific data on industry investment trends and clusters at the state and local levels. When a company is at the right stage, we also provide customized reports that are geared toward helping them with site selection. These reports offer data on elements relevant to a client’s site selection decisions, like industry clusters, supply chains, workforce availability, operating costs, infrastructure, logistics, regulations, and federal and state resources for businesses to support their decision-making process.

Lastly, just as we do with our EDO clients, we assist our international companies in navigating the U.S.

federal system and finding the resources they need to understand the rules and regulations that are relevant to them.

El Koubi: You’ve got this great vantage point where you are overseeing a tremendous amount of activity in the single largest magnet for foreign direct investment in the world, the United States. What are the biggest factors that drive the success or failure of an FDI project or initiative in the United States?

Singh: The factors that lead to success are ultimately based on the decisions made by each individual investor. But from the government side, our priority is to provide the world’s best ecosystem for foreign businesses to thrive here.

International investors choose the United States for many reasons. For some, it’s our access to capital. It’s our stable regulatory framework or our large and diverse consumer market. For others, it’s our educated and skilled workforce, our abundant natural resources, or the fact that we have the best platform from which to export and expand your business globally. If innovation is your driver, the U.S. ranks second in the Global Innovation Index, and we’re a global leader in green technology, R&D, and healthcare.

The average time needed to start a business in the U.S. is four days faster than most OECD nations. It’s for these reasons and more that, for 11 consecutive years, the United States has ranked as the world’s top destination for FDI, reflecting the continued strength and endurance of the U.S. economy.

El Koubi: There’s been a lot of talk about some of the COVID-era federal incentive programs — the CHIPS Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and others. What sort of effect is this legislation having on foreign direct investment activity?

Singh: In terms of metrics, the U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced that SelectUSA had crossed

When we look at large and small investments in the state of Virginia, like the LEGO Group’s recent $1 billion manufacturing investment or the Austrian transportation equipment manufacturer Plasser & Theurer’s $43 million investment, it paints a picture that we see reflected across the entire United States — a welcoming landscape with a top-tier economy in a country that welcomes foreign investment from across the world.

JASJIT SINGH Executive Director, SelectUSA

$200 billion in client-verified foreign direct investments, supporting more than 200,000 jobs since our inception. Just this past fiscal year, we facilitated more than $55 billion in FDI, supporting more than 35,000 American jobs. That tells you the dynamic effect these legislations have had.

At SelectUSA, we are especially supportive of companies in critical industries such as clean tech and semiconductors to bring their businesses to America and address supply chain demands. SelectUSA has helped facilitate 14 semiconductor investments worth almost $30 billion, resulting in nearly 5,000 jobs. And Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited was supported by SelectUSA in their $18 billion expansion in Arizona on top of their previously announced investment of $12 billion. This is just a prime example of our ability to address critical industries.

On the clean tech side, SelectUSA has helped facilitate 39 investments worth over $21 billion, supporting nearly 20,000 jobs. We supported an Italian renewable company called Enel, which announced it’s investing $1 billion to open a 6-gigawatt factory in Oklahoma expected to create 1,000 jobs. These investments tell a story of how this historic legislation has been instrumental in attracting important investments across the country.

El Koubi: VEDP has enjoyed such a great partnership with you and the entire

team at SelectUSA, and I know you’re very familiar with Virginia, considering we’re right next door to your office in Washington, D.C. Can you give us your perspective on Virginia and what we bring to the table when it comes to foreign business investment?

Singh: SelectUSA remains geographically neutral but, honestly, we acknowledge what great partners you and your colleagues at VEDP are and the amazing FDI work that goes on in Virginia. Foreign direct investment in Virginia has supported over 200,000 jobs. When we look at those numbers, as well as large and small investments in the state of Virginia, like the LEGO Group’s recent $1 billion manufacturing investment or the Austrian transportation equipment manufacturer Plasser & Theurer’s $43 million investment, it paints a picture that we see reflected across the entire United States — a welcoming landscape with a top-tier economy in a country that welcomes foreign investment from across the world.

El Koubi: Thank you for the extraordinary partnership. It has been such a pleasure to catch up with you today.

Singh: Thank you, Jason. My pleasure. For the full interview, visit www.vedp.org/Podcasts

Foreign-Owned Companies in Virginia

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT IN VIRGINIA

CGM GROUP

Region: Hampton Roads

French shipping company CMA CGM Group runs its U.S. operations out of its American headquarters in the city of Norfolk.

CMA

TMI AUTOTECH, INC.

Region: Southern Virginia Canadian manufacturer TMI AutoTech manufactures its Ariel Atom Supercar and Ariel Nomad Urban Assault Vehicle at its Halifax County facility.

CONTINENTAL, INC.

Region: Northern Shenandoah Valley German company Continental AG manufactures vinyl, polymer, alloy, sheets, and films at its Winchester facility.

HARDIDE COATINGS, INC.

Region: Southern Virginia

Based in the United Kingdom, Hardide Coatings manufactures advanced tungsten carbide and tungsten metal matrix composite coatings from its Henry County facility.

BAE SYSTEMS

Region: Hampton Roads, New River Valley, Northern Virginia

British defense, aerospace, and security company BAE Systems operates several offices in Northern Virginia (shown here), Hampton Roads, and the New River Valley.

SABRA DIPPING COMPANY (TOP)

Region: Greater Richmond

Israeli-owned Sabra Dipping Company’s Chesterfield County plant is the largest hummus-making facility in the world. The plant produces the entirety of Sabra’s hummus sold in the United States, to the tune of 10,000 tons of the spread each month.

MOROOKA USA (BOTTOM)

Region: Greater Richmond

Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer Morooka Co. located its American headquarters in Hanover County, where it also produces a wide range of rubber track carriers.

ANHEUSER-BUSCH INC. (TOP)

Region: Hampton Roads

Belgian conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev is the largest beer company in the world. Its Williamsburg brewery, open since 1972, produces more than 400 different beer packages, including the iconic Budweiser and Bud Light brands.

ACCENTURE (BOTTOM)

Region: Northern Virginia

Irish global management consulting and technology services company Accenture operates four offices in Northern Virginia.

OMEGA PROTEIN CORPORATION (LEFT)

Region: Northern Neck

Canadian-owned Omega Protein is the United States’ top producer of fish oil. The Northumberland County company also produces protein-rich specialty fishmeal and organic fish solubles.

MACK TRUCKS (RIGHT)

Region: Roanoke Region

Owned by Swedish auto manufacturer

AB Volvo, iconic truck manufacturer

Mack Trucks manufactures all of its medium-duty trucks at its Roanoke Valley Operations facility in Roanoke County. The company announced an expansion of the facility in February to increase capacity for that line and an emerging medium-duty electric truck line.

QUBICAAMF WORLDWIDE

Region: Greater Richmond

Founded in Italy in 1993, QubicaAMF Worldwide manufactures bowling and entertainment products at its Hanover County facility.

DANONE NORTH AMERICA

Region: Shenandoah Valley

Danone North America, a subsidiary of French dairy company Danone, produces healthful dairy and plant-based beverages, coffee creamers, and other products at its Rockingham County plant.

FERGUSON ENTERPRISES, INC.

Region: Hampton Roads

A Newport News-based subsidiary of a British company, Ferguson is a leading U.S. distributor of residential and commercial plumbing products, lighting products, and appliances.

KOMATSU MINING CORPORATION

Region: Northern Virginia, Greater Fredericksburg

Region: I81-I77 Crossroads, Southwest Virginia Komatsu Mining Corporation manufactures underground mining equipment at its facilities in Scott County (pictured here) and Washington County in southwestern Virginia.

LIDL US

German grocery retailer Lidl located its U.S. corporate headquarters in Arlington County and operates a distribution warehouse in Spotsylvania County (pictured above).

HITACHI ENERGY

Region: I81-I77 Crossroads, Southern Virginia Swiss manufacturer Hitachi Energy manufactures electrical transformers at its Virginia facilities in Bland County and Halifax County (pictured above).

FRAMATOME NORTH AMERICA

Region: Lynchburg Region

French nuclear energy company Framatome chose Lynchburg as the location for its U.S. headquarters, where it also designs and manufactures nuclear fuel, service pumps, and motors.

TADANO MANTIS CORPORATION (LEFT)

Region: Southwest Virginia

At its Tazewell County facility, Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer Tadano Mantis manufactures telescopic boom crawler cranes ranging in size from 30 to 130 tons.

FASTECH (TOP RIGHT)

Region: Southern Virginia

Owned by the Harlow Group, a British metal fabricator, FasTech in Danville manufactures precision-engineered, fabricated, machined, and 3D-printed additive components.

PRESS GLASS, INC. (BOTTOM RIGHT)

Region: Southern Virginia

Polish company Press Glass, the largest independent glass fabricator in Europe, announced a $155 million expansion in Henry County in 2023, the largest single-company capital investment in county history.

WEIDMÜLLER GROUP

Region: Greater Richmond

The German-owned Weidmüller Group manufactures smart industrial connectivity products and solutions at its Chesterfield County facility. The company announced a $16.4 million expansion of that plant in 2023.

EURO-COMPOSITES CORPORATION (LEFT)

Region: Central Virginia

Luxembourgish company Euro-Composites manufactures lightweight honeycomb panels at its Culpeper County facility.

SUMITOMO DRIVE TECHNOLOGIES (RIGHT)

Region: Hampton Roads, Shenandoah Valley

Japanese company Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd., manufactures gearboxes and other transmission-related products at its facilities in Augusta County and the city of Chesapeake (pictured here).

DRAWS INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT

Global companies cite Washington Dulles International Airport, The Port of Virginia as key factors in success

How much does Dutch aviation and aerospace giant Airbus value Washington Dulles International Airport? Enough to pick nearby Loudoun County as a center of its U.S.-based spare parts distribution operations not once, but twice.

In 1990, Airbus North American Holdings bought 13 acres in Beaumeade Corporate Park in Ashburn for its new customer service and parts center.

The choice to land near Dulles was an easy one. It’s a large international airport for passengers and freight, it’s close to the nation’s capital, and it’s a robust place for aerospace companies,

both for commercial and military use. And Airbus’ U.S. headquarters are nearby, in the town of Herndon in Fairfax County.

Those connections even came with a low cost because land was cheap in a region that was mostly farmland at the time.

“Loudoun County, with Dulles being an international airport, was the perfect place to build that facility,” said David Kelley, head of operations in the Americas for Airbus subsidiary Satair, founded in Denmark in 1957 and bought by Airbus in 2011.

Twenty-nine years later, Satair, one of the largest distributors in the world for aerospace parts, surveyed America

and chose again to be close to Dulles, leasing property in Northwoods Industrial Park in Loudoun County.

It did so even though massive development over the years has markedly increased land prices since the county’s farm days.

“We looked at talent and resources in the region. We looked at freight routes and international airports and [concluded] that Loudoun County was the best place to do business,” Kelley said.

In February, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced that Dulles and Norfolk International Airport would receive federal grants to upgrade terminal facilities. Dulles will receive $35 million to construct a new 14-gate terminal, while Norfolk will receive $6 million

Virginia International Gateway, Portsmouth

for the construction of a new Federal Inspection Service facility to process cargo and agricultural products.

The draw of Dulles is matched by the pull of The Port of Virginia, creating bookends of infrastructure that have made the Commonwealth a magnet for investment and business.

A HUB OF U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE

Dulles opened 26 miles west of Washington, D.C., in 1962, with the choice made four years earlier by an American president who knew the important intersection of land and strategy: Dwight D. Eisenhower. By the start of this century, the airport was one of the fastest-growing in the world and a gateway to America’s East Coast.

In December 2023 alone, 21,171 passenger flights took off or landed, and

Dulles was on pace last year to carry about 24 million passengers, while on the cargo side, the airport flew more than 300,000 tons to 57 international and 86 domestic destinations.

Some of those passengers and cargo came courtesy of Hanley Energy, a multinational company founded in Ireland that has quickly grown thanks to its focus on helping companies, including power-hungry data centers, use energy more efficiently.

“We had learned from a number of other offices we’d opened around the world that were much greater travel and distances from airports and infrastructure that it really made it very difficult, when you were flying in, to be effective,” said Hanley CEO Clive Gilmore. “We were 10–15 minutes from [Dulles]. That was the first criteria for the office.”

Dulles has helped make the region the biggest for data centers in the world, larger than all of Europe combined, and the computers that drive those centers must be kept cool, requiring a massive amount of energy.

The rapid build-up of data centers and other commerce and industry has made the area close to Dulles a draw for human expertise, which Hanley expects to tap with ambitious growth plans — the number of employees has already grown from two in 2018 to more than 300.

“No matter what kind of expertise you needed, if it was land, renting, legal, or transportation, somebody was always there to help answer the question,” he said.

The emergence of data-hungry artificial intelligence and machine learning will

only accelerate Hanley’s growth, so it was critical for the company to be close to an airport that could accommodate that growth.

Last year, Hanley opened a 40,000-sq.-ft. office that is 20 times larger than the property it first leased in Virginia. Experts from its operations in Ireland regularly travel to Virginia to help with key tasks, so being close to Dulles makes those trips seamless, Gilmore said.

To make sure the company makes best use of Dulles and other resources in the region, officials from Loudoun and Fairfax counties regularly engage with Hanley.

Seamless access to Dulles was also what propelled Satair to set up shop a second time near the airport. In recent years, customers have come to expect just-intime delivery, and Dulles helps make that possible. “It’s the expectation now. And so you need to have that reliability and timeliness,” Kelley said.

Satair invested $10 million in its new Northwoods facility, which has 250,000 square feet of space, to provide parts and support to clients that include Delta Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, and Air Canada, as well as major maintenance repair organizations like Aeroman in El Salvador and HAECO Americas in North Carolina.

“A plane is only as safe and reliable as the parts that go into it,” Kelley said.

THE VALUE OF RELIABILITY AT THE PORT OF VIRGINIA

Reliability has also been a hallmark of The Port of Virginia, according to businesses that depend upon it.

“The ports are vital to our business,” said Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA (MZB) Chief Financial Officer John Phifer. He said the company otherwise “couldn’t run a business of our scope and scale...That was a vital part of the decision to expand.”

In 2021, MZB built a state-of-the art distribution facility in Suffolk, a 350,000-sq.-ft. space in the Equus Capital Partners Virginia Port Logistics Park off U.S. Route 58 that will fuel further growth in a company that first came to Suffolk 36 years earlier.

The coffee company, founded in Treviso, Italy, moves about 6,000 shipping containers annually through the port. Even when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply lines around the world, the port stood out by keeping operations going when other ports lagged.

“They’re very efficient in moving cargo through the port,” Phifer said. “It doesn’t get hung up there. I think about the issues they had on the West Coast during COVID. I don’t think we

Already a key hub for numerous foreign businesses because of its proximity to Washington, D.C., Washington Dulles International Airport became even more convenient with the opening of its Washington Metro Silver Line station in 2022.

Satair, a subsidiary of Dutch aerospace giant Airbus, operates an outbound shipping area at Washington Dulles International Airport, not far from Airbus Americas headquarters in Fairfax County.

had nearly the issues with the traffic through the ports on the East Coast, and particularly in Norfolk.”

With ongoing dredging to create and maintain the deepest, widest channels on the East Coast, the port hits the geographical bullseye for MZB — it’s an easy trip for coffee suppliers from Central and South America, he said.

Plans to expand the road network to and near the port’s Hampton Roads facilities — the Virginia Port Authority also operates Richmond Marine Terminal on the James River and the Virginia Inland Port in Warren County in the Northern Shenandoah Valley — will provide a further boost to the company’s bottom line, including the addition of a third lane in each direction on Interstate 64 and expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

“That’s a significant improvement over what that corridor looked like 10 years ago. That connection and growth expand the bandwidth the company will have to deliver products to a large base of customers in the Northeast,” Phifer said.

The added capacity helps MZB continue to grow its product lines to keep pace with trends among coffee drinkers, such as the growing appetite for espresso, certified coffees, single-serve, and other formats of coffee, he said.

[The Port of Virginia has] been very consistent throughout the whole pandemic with their performance. They’re also extremely good with their communication if there are delays. The fact that they’re so reliable means we can focus on other things that need to be improved within our own walls.

MICHAEL WARD Director of Supply Chain, STIHL Inc.

PORT-DRIVEN EFFICIENCIES ENABLE STIHL’S GROWTH

The Port of Virginia has helped another area company diversify its products to meet the changing demands among consumers: STIHL Inc., which has called Virginia Beach home since 1974.

Back then, STIHL made chainsaws, trimmers, and other equipment powered by gas. But in more recent years, there has been a surge in demand for batterypowered equipment — and the port has helped the company keep pace.

A location less than 30 minutes away from the port has helped the company lower transportation costs so the company can focus its spending on growing its business, said Michael Ward, the company’s director of supply chain. “We’ve been able to really save a tremendous amount of money both in freight and efficiency and deliver our product to our customers in a much faster manner,” he said.

STIHL exports about 3,000 shipping containers a year, the majority destined for Europe using ports in Bremerhaven on Germany’s North Sea coast and Antwerp on Belgium’s Scheldt River.

The company imports about 4,000 containers annually, nearly two-thirds of them finished goods and the rest raw products.

STIHL operates within a U.S. Customs and Border Protection-designated Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), where companies can use special procedures that help encourage trade activity by allowing delayed or reduced duty payments on foreign merchandise, along with streamlined Customs procedures and other benefits. Dulles also serves as the hub of a separate FTZ, and four other zones operate in Virginia, based in Culpeper County, Richmond, Southwest Virginia, and the New River Valley.

In addition to those benefits, STIHL benefits from the port’s efficient, reliable operations, which create savings STIHL uses to improve its own products and operations — even during the pandemic.

“They’ve been very consistent throughout the whole pandemic with their performance. They’re also extremely good with their communication if there are delays,” Ward said. “The fact that they’re so reliable means we can focus on other things that need to be improved within our own walls.”

Those gains in efficiency helped the Virginia Beach facility be selected to make new guide bars locally rather than importing them, as well as allowing STIHL to manufacture their battery packs in Virginia Beach instead of producing them overseas.

Said Ward, “They’ve been a very good partner in helping us become more cost-effective and reliable ourselves, fast to the market and sending product to our customers.”

BEST PRACTICES FOR MINIMIZING THE IMPACT OF

FEDERAL VISA

ROADBLOCKS

Virginia leaders advise foreign companies to plan for lengthy visa application timelines

Foreign companies looking to invest in Virginia go through the same considerations as their domestic counterparts — site evaluation and selection, workforce availability, and logistical issues, to name a few. But another factor more often encountered by foreign companies can have major workforce implications.

Visa requirements imposed by the U.S. government have become an important step in the site selection process that needs to be considered along with traditional factors like real estate and workforce requirements. The lead time on visa processing, handled at the federal level, can be longer than companies expect.

State and local economic developers, including VEDP, are doing what they can to educate companies on these issues. Antje Abshoff, VEDP’s Germany-based managing director of international business investment, recommends companies engage a visa lawyer at least a year ahead of a planned groundbreaking in order to allow enough time for the process to play out.

A CAUTIONARY TALE IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Irish company Hanley Energy, which has offices on four continents, chose the Loudoun County community of Ashburn for its U.S. headquarters in 2015 because of its location in the heart of the “Data Center Alley” industry hotspot. It then grew its workforce so much, it expanded its office space 20fold, opening a 40,000-sq.-ft., purposebuilt office last year.

To manage that expansion and head its growing American business, Hanley wanted to transfer a seasoned senior executive, Niall Franklin. Hanley CEO Clive Gilmore expected it would take weeks to get a visa for Franklin. Instead, it took three years.

“It’s exceptionally difficult because we are trying to launch a product, we are trying to open an office, and you do need to have the subject matter expert,” Gilmore said.

The trouble wasn’t limited to getting Franklin what’s called an L visa, which

Irish company Hanley Energy had to navigate issues securing visas for senior executives to its expanded office in Loudoun County. VEDP works with foreign companies that are looking to expand in Virginia to help them secure the necessary visas on the proper timeline.

enables multinational corporations to transfer senior executives or professionals with specialized expertise to the U.S. The timeline for visa recipients to get visas for spouses and children left Franklin separated from his wife and their 20-month-old toddler until the company intervened.

Hanley, which helps companies identify and eliminate wasted energy, is just one company whose plans to locate or grow in the United States have been stymied by work visa issues. Armed with experience, the VEDP team works to mitigate unanticipated challenges around lengthy approval processes and federal visa requirements by spreading awareness and educating companies early in the process. This challenge is not unique to Virginia or any other state, but a standard site selection consideration companies must prepare for, no matter the project.

When companies do run into this issue in Virginia, the problem isn’t state or local officials, who are among the most helpful in the nation supporting multinational companies looking to make or expand their footprints in America, says lawyer Teri Simmons, who heads immigration law at Atlanta-based Arnall Golden Gregory LLP. “Virginia is always engaged in discussions with embassies and consulates to advocate for more efficient processing for companies investing in Virginia,” she said.

But while Virginia is open for business, federal immigration law is challenging.

“The U.S. is losing the talent that it needs to remain competitive in a global marketplace,” Simmons said.

Roadblocks are numerous.

Multinational corporations want to invest and grow in the United States by moving talent from elsewhere in their companies to help with American operations. But doing so can be slow, unpredictable, and expensive. The percentage of visas denied peaked between 2017 and 2020, Simmons

If you bring skilled people into areas where there is a deficit of workers, then you enable companies to expand. That expansion will allow for more business and that additional business will allow for more employment, including for Americans.

TERI SIMMONS Partner, Arnall Golden Gregory LLP

said. It’s since improved, but delays and denials still hinder business expansions.

Companies like Hanley pay about $4,000, plus legal fees, for each visa application. Applications are evaluated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff, who may lack the relevant experience to determine whether an applicant has expertise that isn’t available in the United States.

No state agency, said Simmons, has done better at mitigating these issues than VEDP, which helps investors and businesses navigate barriers and delays. Part of Abshoff’s job is to alert companies to issues like visa applications that can hinder international expansions.

While the barriers are federal, they can have an outsized impact on Virginia because the Commonwealth is otherwise so attractive to foreign companies, investors, and professionals, thanks to proximity to the nation’s capital and other major population centers.

FILLING WORKFORCE GAPS TO GROW EMPLOYMENT

When discussing best practices in visa procurement, Simmons speaks not just for client companies, but from personal experience. Last year, her firm tried to grow its business by hiring a new lawyer licensed to practice in the United States and Germany. Simmons had an ideal

candidate, a former student of hers at the University of Georgia. But caps on the number of visas available, distributed via lottery, prevented the firm from securing a visa for the candidate.

“When companies can’t hire them legally, it causes a tremendous issue for business,” she said.

Businesses in Virginia and across the U.S. prefer to hire a qualified American and avoid the costs and delays of seeking a visa, but some expertise is in short supply, including highly trained programmers and machine operators in the manufacturing industry, as well as science, technology, and engineering degree holders in tech.

“If you bring skilled people into areas where there is a deficit of workers, then you enable companies to expand. That expansion will allow for more business and that additional business will allow for more employment, not less, including for Americans,” Simmons said.

Hanley Energy is a great example. The company has brought a few foreign nationals over and used their expertise to build a growing business that employs hundreds of Americans.

“You see all across the state — the foreign investment that is helping to drive the economy,” she said.

A Deep Dive Into

Asian Markets

A Conversation With Dennis Meseroll

Dennis Meseroll is co-founder and executive director of Tractus Asia Limited, a global foreign direct investment advisory firm based in Thailand that specializes in advising and assisting companies with investment and location decisions in Asia. VEDP President and CEO Jason El Koubi spoke with Meseroll about reshoring, nearshoring, and other trends he’s seeing with Asian companies and markets.

Jason El Koubi: Tell us a little bit about your business and what kinds of trends you’re seeing with respect to companies that are choosing to locate new facilities.

Dennis Meseroll: We do foreign direct investment advisory work, so we’re primarily working with companies that are looking to expand here in Asia through our location strategy and site selection practice and our market expansion services. We also have an economic development practice, so we’re working with global investment promotion agencies and economic development organizations around the world, helping them with lead generation to attract investment in places like the state of Virginia.

The global mega-trends we are seeing that are driving global cross-border investment are impacting all the locations here in Asia. The real highlevel trends of digitization of the world economy and the energy transition are as applicable here as they are in North America and Europe. Semiconductors and electronic components are being driven by that expansion and digitization of the global economy, and I think we all believe that that’s going to continue for quite some time. But the No. 1 driver is the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables. That’s by far the largest component of cross-border investment that’s happening globally.

We’re also right in the middle of the decade of diversification. This is this global trend in supply chain restructuring, really started and driven by the needs for geographically diversifying manufacturing from China. This diversification really started in earnest with the tariffs imposed on imports from China enacted during the Trump administration, but was exacerbated by lockdowns and supply chain disruption issues during the COVID pandemic.

El Koubi: How does that geographic diversification play out in Asia? Which

Having Chinese companies focus on M&A to begin with is not at all surprising, because if you look back at how U.S. companies invested internationally, that’s how they did it. You get management, you get market access, you get talent, you get experience.

From that, you operate those plants and, after awhile, you’re much more comfortable to do a greenfield investment.

DENNIS MESEROLL Co-Founder and Executive Director, Tractus Asia Limited

pieces of it are focused more broadly in creating FDI opportunities in North America?

Meseroll: We always think about reshoring in its pure definition, which is when a company closes down a location overseas and then returns it to its home country to start the operations up again. While reshoring is happening on the margins, we’ve seen much more nearshoring activity.

In Asia, there’s been this trend that’s called China Plus One. Companies still operate in China to serve the Chinese market — it’s still a massive market and they want to be able to take advantage of that. But they’re also looking to diversify their manufacturing capacity geographically, trying to identify alternative locations outside of China to serve regional and global markets. We’re seeing more companies operating in China for China and other places for supplying to other markets.

Chinese investment into the U.S. started out primarily as M&A. Chinese companies acquired U.S. companies to get a foothold in the market and acquire management talent and market access. For the last decade, M&Afocused investments were always much higher than greenfield. However, this all changed in 2023. This was the first year it switched, and it switched in a big way. In 2023, total outbound Chinese investment was about U.S. $115 billion, and about $100 billion of that was greenfield and

only about $15 billion was M&A. Most of this investment went to “friendly” locations that are attractive and receptive to Chinese investments. Of the $100 billion of greenfield investment, only about 8% went to Europe and less than 2% went to the U.S. About 36% went to Africa and 34% was invested in Asia. The Chinese are preferentially investing in more receptive countries and ones that are closer to home.

El Koubi: Are there any differences that you would want to point out in terms of how the Chinese business decisionmakers are managing geopolitical challenges? What caused the shift in Chinese investment from predominantly M&A to greenfield investment?

Meseroll: The Chinese companies we’ve worked with are typically used to working in the Chinese environment. There, the government is very directive or very helpful in how they can invest and expand domestically. When they invest overseas, they find themselves in an unfamiliar environment. The experience is very similar to what we observed 30 years ago with U.S. companies that were new to Asia. They’re having to learn as they go and adjust their expectations and perceptions to the reality of the markets they are investing in.

Having Chinese companies focus on M&A to begin with is not at all surprising, because if you look back at how U.S. companies invested internationally, that’s how they did it. You get management, you

get market access, you get talent, you get experience. From that, you operate those plants and, after awhile, you’re much more comfortable to do a greenfield investment.

Chinese companies have been investing in the U.S. for the last 10 years, so this is about time for that transition to take place. There’s been a lot of administrative or political pushback in the West for Chinese acquisitions of companies but, in some markets, it’s a little bit easier to put a greenfield investment on the ground.

El Koubi: One of the things that we read about frequently is the supply chain and how that is changing. Particularly in a post-COVID environment, which exposed some of the challenges to the supply chain, and it’s driven a certain amount of diversification. What are you seeing in particular on supply chain factors and how is that driving location decisions?

Meseroll: What we’re seeing are the changes that are being made for new investments and expansion. Companies are looking to serve new markets, to serve new customers, to balance their supply chain more. Drivers for locations are almost always market access-related. Diversification could be looked at from a risk perspective as well, reducing geopolitical risk, diversifying and improving supply chain resiliency — not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Another part of it is access to talent and raw materials. We’re seeing a huge

amount of investment in the last three years in Indonesia in battery materials. The investment is primarily resourcedriven with Indonesia being the largest producer of nickel in the world. But there is also a regulatory element as Indonesia bans the export of non-ferrous metal concentrates, forcing companies to invest in value-added smelting and refining in-country to add value. Indonesia has nickel, cobalt, and manganese, and those are all necessary for the production of various kinds of battery materials.

The fundamental drivers are the same. Market access to resources depends on the company and industry. But companies are very cognizant of needing to diversify the geographic locations of their investments to reduce risks and improve resiliency.

El Koubi: How do you think the United States is in a position to benefit from these trends and activities?

Meseroll: If you look at the crossborder greenfield investment statistics over the last decade, the U.S. has been the No. 1 location for almost the last decade. For some sectors, specific investment incentives like the CHIPS Act are pulling in semiconductors, the Inflation Reduction Act with battery materials, and such.

It’s the world’s biggest economy, so that’s always a pull. With the interest in diversification, that just adds to it. It’s an easy place to do business and is open and welcome to investment. It’s hard to be in a better position than that overall.

We’re asked sometimes by different companies to comment on what it’s like to operate in the United States. With the federal system, you’ve got different laws, different regulations, different incentives, and different workforces in each of the states. There are very few countries in the world that are federal and have such a disparity in regulations within a single country. Most other countries are pretty

unitary, so they’re expecting one set of laws to comply with. It can be daunting for foreign investors to understand.

El Koubi: You’ve been in Asia now for 30 years or so. What has that been like, watching Asia evolve?

Meseroll: I think the best metaphor is that it has literally been like watching corn grow. Myself, my partner, if we sit back and think about it, we’ve seen some amazing changes in the span of 30 years. That’s maybe a generation.

One of the first projects we worked on was an air conditioning compressor plant for Emerson Electric. The executives flew into Thailand to do a site visit at the end of the project and then they were headed off to China. They flew to the site, a pineapple plantation that was being converted to an industrial estate, by helicopter. In Asia, industrial zones, sometimes called industrial parks or industrial estates, are gated industrial communities. A developer will prepare the land and infrastructure and put a wall around the whole thing that may be several square miles in size, but, in this case, it was just a pineapple plantation at the time of their visit.

There was significant demand for their compressors from air conditioning manufacturers in Thailand and Southeast

Asia. They saw the government was promoting the area for industrial investment, investing in infrastructure and providing incentives for investment in the area. They reviewed our report, had confidence in the developer, and, after seeing the site, said, “It’s a go. We will take it.” After some negotiations, they acquired the first plot in the new estate. That plant is still there. It’s been expanded twice. It’s still at the gate of this industrial estate.

While that was one of the first major investments in the area, there are probably 20,000 plants in that area that they call the Eastern Seaboard now. Every single Japanese pickup truck OEM has moved all of their manufacturing to that area of Thailand. Ford, GM, now all the Chinese electric vehicle OEMs — almost every vehicle manufacturer has an assembly facility in the Eastern Seaboard region of Thailand. In addition to automotive, there is significant appliance and air conditioning, aerospace, and all the downstream activities, such as automotive parts and other components. Flying back and forth to Vietnam and our other offices around Asia, you see the change in the economy and industrial development over that span of a generation.

El Koubi: Thank you so much for joining us today. Fascinating perspective.

Meseroll: You’re welcome, Jason.

With the federal system, you’ve got different laws, different regulations, different incentives, and different workforces in each of the states. There are very few countries in the world that are federal and have such a disparity in regulations within a single country. Most other countries are pretty unitary, so they’re expecting one set of laws to comply with. It can be daunting for foreign investors to understand.

DENNIS MESEROLL Co-Founder and Executive Director, Tractus Asia Limited

A Win-Win Situation

Apprenticeship program helps STIHL develop a skilled manufacturing workforce

WHEN RYAN BUZZY was a child, his passion was to take radios apart to see how they worked.

At 25, he’s not a kid anymore, but his passion for seeing how things work never changed. That’s why, eight years ago — less than two months after graduating from high school — he signed on to be an apprentice (and ultimately, an engineering technician) with German-owned power tool manufacturing giant STIHL Inc.

Buzzy started at under $50,000 per year, but has just about doubled his salary. As he put it, “Financially, it’s like I’ve been launched a decade into the future.”

The program that got him in the door at STIHL was created with an eye toward the company’s own financial future. Forty years ago, the company underwrote a unique domestic apprenticeship program that has since trained and hired nearly 70 young apprentices, with a remarkable 93% retention rate.

A NEW, OLD METHOD OF WORKFORCE TRAINING

A growing number of employers nationwide — some, perhaps, influenced by the eye-popping success of Virginia employers like STIHL — are waking up to the value of well-resourced apprenticeship programs. There are currently 600,000 registered apprentices of all kinds in the United States, a 106% increase from 10 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

At the outset, the hard part is convincing college-minded parents — even more

than their kids — about the potential benefits of apprenticeships, says Courtney Addison, manager of talent development at STIHL.

“In the U.S., there’s more of an emphasis on the college route after high school, and college gets pushed down a lot of kids’ throats,” she said. “But now, some students and parents are starting to look at other alternatives.”

One such alternative is STIHL’s apprenticeship program, which gets about 300 applicants annually and ultimately trains and hires an average of four every year. It’s not cheap. STIHL estimates it spent more than $1 million in all facets of training and development at the company last year, including for this program. But the payoff for the company is huge.

“Our goal is to select the best candidates for the program so we can train them to our level and our standards,” Addison said. “This creates a pipeline of talent for hard-to-fill positions,” including very specialized jobs like tool and die makers and polymer technicians.

TRAINING AN EMPLOYEE, MOLDING A PERSON

Depending on the specific apprenticeship, the domestic program lasts from two-and-a-half to four years and includes a college education — fully paid for upfront by STIHL — at Tidewater Community College (TCC). Other employee benefits include health and dental insurance, paid vacation time, a 401(k) plan, and a company pension.

The process can be grueling. After an eight- to 12-hour day at work, apprentices are often expected to attend evening classes at TCC for up to four additional hours some evenings.

“The apprenticeship program is a huge commitment for students and their families,” Addison said, “but it’s worth it.”

Just ask Buzzy.

“If I step back and look at what I’ve accomplished in the past seven years, I’m so grateful for all the hard work I put into it,” he said. “If you work hard, you set yourself up to do well for yourself inside the company and outside the company.”

Buzzy has friends his age who went directly to college from high school and now have onerous student loan debt that has prevented them from buying new cars. In his case, as he put it, “I had an opportunity to jump-start my life and live it the way I want to.”

It all started at age 18, when it came time to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test if he wanted to go to college. “I didn’t really want to study for the SAT anyway,” he said.

During high school, he’d attended some tech classes at the Advanced Technology Center at TCC’s Virginia Beach campus. That’s how he found out about the STIHL apprenticeship program.

LEARNING A CAREER

The program starts with an eight-month “boot camp” to establish a baseline for apprentices, where they’re trained on basic safety issues so they can always operate safely on the floor. That was where Buzzy first learned to shape metal with specialized machines.

Next, apprentices go into rotations that include working in a variety of

departments and attending night classes. On days that involve night classes at TCC, their days can stretch up to 16 hours.

Apprentices start out mostly observing experienced technicians, often former apprentices themselves, followed by a period of working with tools under close observation. Ultimately, apprentices get to work on their own.

I had an opportunity to jump-start my life and live it the way I want to.

RYAN BUZZY Engineering Technician, STIHL Inc.

Ryan Buzzy started out at STIHL Inc. as an apprentice in the assembly maintenance department. Through the apprenticeship program, he has since been promoted to engineering technician and earned an associate degree in mechatronics.

Over the initial two-year period, Buzzy mostly worked in the assembly maintenance department, learning about the assembly of the hundreds of parts that make up the power tools. This is where materials are put together for the trimmers, blowers, or chainsaws sold to consumers.

These long days did not bother Buzzy. In fact, he says, they gave him incentive

to keep pushing harder. He stuck with the program for four years before graduating and joined the process engineering team at 22.

He’d already earned an associate degree in mechatronics, which combines the study of mechanics, electronics, and computer engineering — totally paid for by STIHL. He also earned a Virginia journeyman’s certificate.

His accomplishments at STIHL have been considerable. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped to design and assemble safety platforms that kept assembly line workers safe distances from each other. He’s even built full machine automations on his own.

“It’s like the adult erector set world,” he jokes.

Buzzy fully realizes that the opportunity is there to ultimately become an executive at STIHL. But at 25, he says, he’s still considering his options.

TAKING CHARGE OF TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Attracting workers with skills like Buzzy’s isn’t easy. The toughest thing for manufacturing companies like STIHL is recruitment, Addison said, because of stereotypes around the industry.

Meanwhile, the specialized trade skills required at STIHL are getting harder to come by. That’s why an apprenticeship program that trains from scratch is so critical to the company’s future.

“These skills are disappearing in Virginia and everywhere,” Addison said. “So we have to be proactive in creating and keeping the skillsets.”

For Buzzy, it’s been a long, steady climb since his childhood, when he first began tinkering with tractors and other farm machinery on his grandfather’s hobby farm.

“Every time I get good at something, I feel like I need to learn something else,” he said. “My goal is to keep learning. More than anything else, my apprenticeship taught me how to learn.”

of the

Tools Trade

Several VEDP international trade programs are helping foreign-owned Virginia companies boost business operations in other markets

When Dutch secondary packaging solutions provider BluePrint Automation decided to open a U.S. location in 1987, the company chose a site in Chesterfield County near Richmond, due in part to the regional talent market and multiple nearby ports that could facilitate importing.

Today, while the Dutch and U.S. facilities collaborate at times from a design and manufacturing standpoint, BluePrint’s Virginia branch functions fairly independently, according to Robbie Quinlin, the company’s marketing manager for the Americas.

“The Netherlands is not our headquarters,” Quinlin said. “We actually operate as two separate entities. Globally, our facility in the Netherlands takes care of the Europe and Asia markets.”

After initially offering packaging systems primarily to customers in the U.S., to extend its reach farther south,

BluePrint retained local sales agents to gain a foothold in countries such as Mexico and Brazil.

The company, however, wasn’t getting as much traction as it would have liked in some areas, Quinlin said. To support its sales efforts in Latin America, BluePrint signed on to participate in VEDP’s twoyear Virginia Leaders in Export Trade (VALET) program in 2003.

The business acceleration program, launched in 2002, provides Virginia companies with resources to bolster their international growth — ranging from sales plan development assistance to access to international professional services providers who can offer expertise in areas like transportation or the law.

“There may be someone who’s really knowledgeable about export tax or shipping,” Quinlin said. “You’re able to make those connections with other resources right here in Virginia.”

ADDITIONAL AMENITIES

The VALET program accepts 25 companies a year. Program participants who have completed it — to date, 375 organizations — report a 78% average increase in international sales.

The initiative is one of several VEDP sponsors to help Virginia businesses enhance their global operations.

The State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) Grant, funded through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration, was established to raise the value of products companies sell in other countries and increase the number of small businesses in the Commonwealth that export items.

VEDP’s Trade Show Program provides eligible companies with up to $10,000 in reimbursements to exhibit at product-, service-, or industry-related events that occur outside of the U.S. or have a demonstrated international aspect.

VEDP has also offered more informal assistance to companies, such as connecting BluePrint with a translation services provider who also served as

a local point of contact when the manufacturer sponsored a booth at a Sao Paulo trade conference in 2010.

“As small as that may seem, it’s not,” Quinlin said. “When you’re doing the planning and you’re not local to that country and don’t speak the language, that’s a big help.”

The translation capabilities allowed BluePrint to attend the event, Quinlin said, which was a key component of its promotional plan for the region.

“We’re really established in our industry in the U.S.; not so much in Latin America,” he said. “We’re still growing in that market. Going to the trade shows, we’re trying to set ourselves up as a leader. Brand awareness is huge. What the program is providing is immeasurable — it’s allowing us the opportunity to become who we should be there.”

EXTERNAL INSIGHT

After relying on local agents to enter the market in South America and Mexico more than a decade ago, BluePrint hired full-time sales employees who now live

The research is extremely important for any company to be able to know how to attack a particular market. That’s the only way you can be successful. [But] it will take anywhere between three to five years to do it yourself.

MARIO PINO Vice President of Sales for Latin America, BluePrint Automation

and work directly with customers where the company has a presence — which has helped strengthen its foundation in those countries, said Mario Pino, vice president of sales for Latin America.

“We have experts who speak the language, know the marketplace,” Pino said. “We have a regional sales director who lives in Mexico. We have another regional sales manager who

lives in three different areas — Miami, Colombia, and Chile. He is responsible for South America.”

Yet even with strong boots-on-theground support, obtaining the necessary information to identify potential new clients in other countries — including their most pressing needs and the best way to reach them — can be a timeconsuming endeavor.

“The research is extremely important for any company to be able to know how to attack a particular market,” Pino said. “That’s the only way you can be successful. [But] it will take anywhere between three to five years to do it yourself.”

When BluePrint wanted to determine last year if there were any snack producers in Brazil that might be interested in the company’s automated packaging equipment, VEDP worked with a consultant in Brazil to secure detailed market research on the topic.

“The results that came back were good,” Pino said. “I was impressed. I told Robbie, ‘It’s valuable information

for us to be able to expand our business for that particular industry.’ It reassured us [about] the direction we were taking.”

CONQUERING INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE

BluePrint is currently planning to participate in the VALET program again this year. The company has already engaged Fairfax County-based business management consultant Capstone Strategic, Inc. to determine locations to concentrate on.

“They did some preliminary research and gave us a matrix to say, ‘This country’s headed upward; this one, not so much,’” Quinlin said. “We’re a mid-sized company, but if you’re a smaller company trying to penetrate that market, and your resources are even more limited, you don’t want to waste them in a country that’s not ready or able to buy.”

If BluePrint’s future business development efforts in South America ultimately help boost sales in the region, the company’s domestic operations, Pino said, could also potentially expand.

Its U.S. headquarters — which have been located in Chesterfield since the 1990s — are, in fact, already scheduled to have 60,000 square feet of space added by April 2024.

“We’ve been going to these trade shows, promoting BluePrint,” Pino said. “With the assistance of the VALET program, that growth can be further extended. That help allows us to sell more; in the future, expand the factory — it’s a benefit for us, but it’s [also] a benefit for the community in Chesterfield.”

An Outdoor Lover’s Paradise

to Explore by Foot, Car, Canoe, or Skis

SHENANDOAH VALLEY

Nestled between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountain ranges, the Shenandoah Valley boasts huge areas of protected land in the form of Shenandoah National Park and the majority of the Virginia portion of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. The region has abundant natural resources that bolster a thriving food and beverage production industry, which employs more than 5% of the Shenandoah Valley’s labor force at major companies including the Hershey Company, Molson Coors Beverage Company, Cargill, Perdue, Danone North America, and McKee Foods, makers of numerous beloved products sold under the iconic Little Debbie brand. Other major industries include advanced manufacturing, information technology, and logistics, which draw talent from a wide array of higher education institutions: major research university James Madison University, Virginia Military Institute (described by President Abraham Lincoln as “the West Point of the South”), well-regarded liberal arts colleges like Washington and Lee University, and Blue Ridge Community College.

THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY OFFERS:

Interstate 81, which runs the length of the region and connects with Interstate 64 in Rockbridge County and the city of Staunton, provides easy access to major East Coast markets and all of The Port of Virginia’s facilities

Abundant outdoor recreation including established skiing and snowboarding hotspots Massanutten Resort in Rockingham County, Bryce Resort in Shenandoah County, and The Omni Homestead Resort in Bath County

Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, described as “the ultimate fall drive” and “one of the great motoring experiences of North America”

Shenandoah National Park, Rockingham County

Blue Ridge Community College’s Aviation Maintenance Technology program offers hands-on experience through a partnership with Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport in Augusta County.

James Madison University in Harrisonburg retains 90% of its freshman students. Niche ranked its campus and food offerings 8th in the country in 2024.

Shenandoah National Park

Cadence, Inc., has produced high-performance medical devices from its Staunton facility since 1985.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia’s only national park, includes 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Visitors who can’t fit in a thru-hike of the park can explore the park via the Skyline Drive along the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Billed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County is a 215-foot-high stone natural arch once owned by Thomas Jefferson and now managed as Natural Bridge State Park.

Virginia Military Institute (left) and Washington and Lee University sit side by side in the city of Lexington.

Downtown Staunton

Luray Caverns in Page County is the largest cave complex in the eastern United States. One of its top attractions is the Great Stalacpipe Organ, certified as the world’s largest musical instrument by Guinness World Records.

Economic Development Partners in Virginia

VEDP works in close partnership with local and regional economic development organizations. For a full list of local and regional partners, visit www.vedp.org/Regions

In addition, VEDP regularly works with a wide network of statewide partners, including:

State Leadership Partners

Governor

General Assembly

Major Employment and Investment (MEI) Commission

Secretary of Commerce and Trade

Secretary of Finance

Project Delivery Partners Policy and Programmatic Partners

Colleges and universities across the Commonwealth (e.g., UVA, Virginia Tech, William & Mary)

CSX, Norfolk Southern, and short-line railroads

Dominion, AEP, and other electric utilities

The Port of Virginia

Virginia Community College System

Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit

Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity

Virginia Department of Taxation

Virginia Department of Transportation

Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation

Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission

Virginia Tourism Corporation

GO Virginia State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

Virginia Agribusiness Council

Virginia Association of Counties

Virginia Business Council

Virginia Business Higher Education Council

Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association, Virginia Manufacturers Association, Virginia Maritime Association, Virginia Realtors Association, and many other trade associations

Virginia Chamber of Commerce, as well as many local and regional chambers of commerce

Virginia Economic Developers Association

Virginia Farm Bureau

Virginia Municipal League

Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions

Virginia Rural Center

Virginia’s Technology Councils

A HOME AWAY FROM HOME

Virginia’s top-notch infrastructure and strategic location are key pillars of the Commonwealth’s value proposition for international companies. Across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. and its policymakers, Virginia is serviced by 16 commercial airports that collectively provide nonstop flights to more than 100 domestic destinations and 50 international destinations, and The Port of Virginia is the third-largest port on the East Coast and was cited by World Distribution Services as the most technologically advanced port in North America.