The Bay State's Global Business Potential
Massachusetts and its businesses are ripe for increased participation in global economic partnerships. Our economic ecosystem — world-class universities, international institutions including UMass Medical Center and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a highly educated workforce and innovation clusters in diverse fields ranging from IT to academics to renewable energy to life sciences — is unique and makes Massachusetts and its businesses compelling partners on the global stage. Global firms target this ecosystem as a place to do business and we continue to see increased interest in foreign direct investment (FDI).
The Massachusetts Office of International Trade & Investment (MOITI) works to grow jobs in the commonwealth. We facilitate partnerships between Massachusetts, its businesses, and foreign companies with two main goals: bringing FDI here, and promoting targeted exports. We provide a first point of contact for international firms looking to do business here while maintaining a balance between collaboration and competition.
For many, FDI is a Toyota setting up manufacturing in the United States. But what happens on a micro scale among small and medium-sized businesses, is where FDI may have the most significant impact. Smaller organizations often don’t have the resources to expand or participate in the global economy and may need more help identifying the appropriate contacts or siting a business.
MOITI hosts between 60 and 70 international business and government delegations per year, many of them leaders of small and medium-sized businesses. Over the last 18 months, MOITI has worked with international companies that have invested $75 million in Massachusetts, resulting in the creation or retention of almost 950 jobs in the commonwealth.
These direct jobs, however, are not the end of the economic development story. Every international firm that hires someone here relies on other services — such as accounting, legal, health care and real estate. This ripple effect creates wider economic opportunities. Additionally, companies that start small tend to scale up once they get a foothold in the market. Because of our highly educated talent pool, scaling up a business here is made easy.
Total Mobile, an IT software company from Northern Ireland, provides an excellent example. In 2008, Lt. Gov. Tim Murray and the team from MOITI, persuaded Total Mobile to site its new North American operations center in Westborough. What began as an office of 10 people will increase in the next few years to between 75 and 100.
Gov. Deval Patrick believes government can help raise the commonwealth’s global profile to facilitate economic partnerships. That’s one reason why he has led trade missions abroad.
Promoting FDI and the export of Massachusetts products and services are critical to the success of our economy and for our businesses reaching their potential.
Kenneth R. Brown is executive director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade & Investment.
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