Japanese Business Group Eyes Metro East for Investment, Development Opportunities
Date Posted: July 25, 2019
Posted In: News,
From The Telegraph: A June trip by local officials to Washington D.C. to discuss economic development with a Japanese business group is expected to pay off in October.
Representatives of the Japanese organization are expected to come to the Metro East for a tour of the region, focusing on potential development sites.
Officials with Keidanren USA — the U.S. arm of Keidanren, the Japanese Business Federation representing more than 1,400 Japanese companies, 109 nationwide industrial associations and 47 separate regional economic organizations — plan to visit throughout the area for two days in October, according to Ronda Sauget, executive director of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois.
The tour will include sites on both sides of the river.
“We’re pretty excited about the opportunity,” Sauget said. “Opening up our region to foreign direct investment is just really key to economic development. You always want to have a really good mix of foreign and domestic companies and always being that welcoming community is important.”
In June, Sauget and Jim Alexander of the STL Alliance led a group of local business, government and education leaders to Washington, D.C. to meet with Keidanren USA officials and give presentations on the area. The group had been specifically invited after Sauget and Alexander met with Keidanren USA officials in Chicago.
Sauget noted that Japanese firms tend to congregate together, and that areas of Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana tend to attract those businesses. So far, she said, the St. Louis region has not.