艾滋病外商投资峰会在美国举行

AS IT IS 2016-06-26 Summit Aids Foreign Investment in US 艾滋病外商投资峰会在美国举行

American Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker says now is a great time to invest in the United States.

She made the comment earlier this week in a speech to an international business gathering¹ in Washington, D.C. Business owners and investors² from around the world attend the SelectUSA Investment Summit.

Pritzker said the U.S. economy is almost 15 percent larger than it was in 2009. She said 14.5 million more people are now employed. And she said the U.S. economy is growing faster than that of any other nation.

President Barack Obama also spoke³ at the conference Monday. Obama said America leads the world in “cutting-edge manufacturing.” He also said “no other country is home to more foreign direct investment than the United States.”

But investing in the U.S. is not always easy. Small and medium-size businesses can find investing in America difficult.

Felicia Pullam is the director of outreach for SelectUSA.

“When they look at the United States, they see you've got 50 states, plus the territories, and so sometimes they just don’t know where to start. And you know, whenever you invest in a new country, it's a new country, so it's a foreign system and you need to learn about it. So that's why SelectUSA was created -- to help people understand the system."

Pullam said companies can find all the resources about America in one room.

One of those companies is 85°C Bakery Café. Gloria Gorden is its human resources director.

"The company started in 2004 in Taiwan. As of now we have more than 900 stores in Asia, primarily Taiwan and China. We have 19 stores, as of last Friday, in the U.S., all of which are in California. We are looking to expand out of state toward the end of this year..."

Gorden said her company wants to open restaurants in the states of Texas and Washington, as well as in Washington D.C. and New York City.

She said opening in California was hard because of its many business rules. She said she wished the company had done more research about starting a business there.

Taner Basaga is the general manager of flooring manufacturer Yildiz Entegre USA. He said his company has been in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Alabama for about six years. He said it hopes to build more factories in other parts of America.

Basaga said getting started in the United States was easy for his company. He said “we came with capital, [and] we did a …study.”

Basaga had advice for companies wishing to come to America. In his words, “spend a lot of time and try to understand the country first.”

Not every company that attended the conference is established in the U.S.

Xanga and InnovAir is a real estate, marketing⁵ and development company based in Hungary. Nándor Nagy told VOA that his company wants to open offices in the U.S.

He described America as “a big market with great possibilities and strong rule of law.” He said that, after the conference, he was going to search for places to establish a factory in the U.S.

The “unbeatable” South

Many foreign investors go to the better-known U.S. cities, such as New York, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco. Gene⁴ Stinson is president of the Southern Economic Development Council. He was at the meeting to sell the “unbeatable potential” of doing business in 17 southern U.S. states.

"All of the critical components⁶ of doing business: transportation costs, energy, labor⁷, all of those, as a rule, are less in our region than in other parts of the U.S."

This was the third SelectUSA Investment Summit. The number of foreign investors in attendance has increased each year. American business people from every state and two territories also attended.

The Commerce Department reports that, as of 2013, American affiliates⁹ of foreign companies directly employed 6.1 million people in the U.S.

Words in This Story

cutting-edge – n. the newest and most advanced area of activity in an art, business or science

outreach – n. the activity or process of bringing information or services to people

capital – n. money and property that is used to start or operate a business

potential – n. an ability that someone has that can be developed to help that person become successful

affiliate⁸ – n. an organization that is a member of a larger organization

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

5 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

6 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

7 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

8 affiliate   

vt.使隶(附)属于；n.附属机构，分公司

参考例句：

• Our New York company has an affiliate in Los Angeles.我们的纽约公司在洛杉矶有一个下属企业。
• What is the difference between affiliate and regular membership?固定会员和附属会员之间的区别是什么？

9 affiliates   

附属企业( affiliate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She affiliates with an academic society. 她是某学术团体的成员。
• For example, these security affiliates participated in the floating of 19,000,000,000 of issues in 1927. 例如，这些证券发行机构在1927年的流通证券中，就提供了一百九十亿美元的证券。