There is tremendous variability among state and local Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) engaged in foreign direct investment (FDI) and export strategies and promotion.

To be more globally competitive, these communities of varied resource abilities must develop a strong regional plan

credit: Green Futures Magazine

that provide them with a roadmap to attract more FDI and increase international business opportunities for their communities.

This initiative will assist communities in attracting more FDI as well as increase export promotion to strengthen their local economies by identifying and applying best practices that use international markets to create domestic jobs.EDA seeks to accomplish the following activities and outputs with this award:
1) Identify and understand the characteristics of an effective trade and FDI promotion strategy, and the barriers to success at the local and regional level;2) Develop best practice reports; 3) Develop cluster specific assessment tool and tool kit training guide;4) Develop a user-friendly applied findings toolkit that communities can use to easily:a) Assess the efficacy of their overall international engagement;b) Identify areas of potential global competitiveness in trade and investment given assets in their respective geographies; andc) Develop and implement an enhanced international engagement strategy that may be incorporated into a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) or similar document.