Senior White House and Cabinet officials today hosted a delegation of leaders of eight Swiss companies in the Roosevelt Room to discuss opportunities to spur new investments and create jobs for American workers. As part of the meeting, the companies announced their plans to invest about $8 billion into their combined U.S. operations in 2015. These new job-creating investments build on the roughly $140 billion in Swiss foreign direct investment (FDI) stock that makes Switzerland the sixth-largest source of FDI in the United States and a crucial commercial partner.
Many of the executives, who were joined today by senior Swiss government officials, also announced their firms’ plans to expand or launch apprenticeship programs in the United States, reinforcing President Obama’s goal of doubling registered apprenticeships in the U.S. over the next five years. For details on the companies and their specific announcements, please see the Commerce Department’s fact sheet.
Today’s discussion, hosted by Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez, was an important opportunity to engage with these companies on the mutual benefits of job-creating FDI while discussing the additional steps we can take together to make the United States an increasingly competitive location for companies from around the world to locate, grow, and hire.
