Eleven foreign direct investment professionals representing more than two dozen countries discussed the impact of global investment will have on the Lehigh Valley during an event Thursday hosted by the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation’s Brokers & Developers Council at the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

LVEDC requested the presence of the delegates with the Pennsylvania Office of International Business Development Center for Direct Investment with whom they serve as investment contractors to attract foreign capital to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It represents the largest network of overseas office of any state in the union. The two-hour event concluded an afternoon of touring and presentations highlighting Lehigh Valley projects and opportunities.

“Global investment will continue to provide the impetus for the growth of our nation’s economy and we’ve seen that firsthand in the Lehigh Valley,” said Don Cunningham, LVEDC president and CEO. “Thanks to our region’s unique assets and outstanding location our track record proves that foreign-based investors believe in the strength of the Lehigh Valley.”

David Briel, executive director for CDI, noted during a presentation that there are more than 6,300 foreign-owned business locations in the Commonwealth, with about 1,400 of them being manufacturing companies. “Pennsylvania is fourth in the United States in terms of the number of workers employed by majority-owned foreign owned affiliates,” Briel said.

In Fiscal Year 2013-2014, the CDI completed 20 successful projects that created more than 1,100 jobs with a capital investment of more than $179.1 million. These recent statistics continue a larger trend over the last seven years in which 121 projects has been launched across Pennsylvania with 36 of them occurring in the Advanced Manufacturing sector, 34 in the Business Services Sector, and 21 in the Life Science sector.

“A total of five of those projects occurred in Lehigh County and two were in Northampton County,” Briel said.
The most recent completed project is Fuling Plastics USA, which will operate out of an 88,000-square-foot facility that sits on 7.7 acres of land. The Chinese-based company is making a $21.3 million investment in the project that is expected to create 75 new jobs.

During the presentation, LVEDC investors and partners heard from Richard Kelner, DCED global investment representative for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy and Supriya Kanetkar, investment representative to India.

The delegates in attendance Thursday represented the nations of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, China, Taiwan, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, India, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy.

LVEDC’s Brokers & Developers’ Council is comprised of commercial and industrial real estate brokers, site selectors, developers, bankers, corporate real estate engineers, architects, construction professionals and those involved in the development and expansion of commercial and industrial business in the Lehigh Valley.