In 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton placed great emphasis on the "future of U.S. economic growth increasingly relying on our ability to compete and win overseas." Given the Department of State's far-reaching work overseas, she asked all of her colleagues to look at ways to use the Department’s platforms and relationships abroad to strengthen the relationship between diplomacy and economics. In other words, she asked her Department to answer the question of what we can do for business.
As a piece of this broader agenda, Secretary Clinton has invited senior officials from U.S. business support organizations around the world for a two-day conference hosted by the State Department in Washington, DC on February 21-22, 2012. The conference highlights how the U.S. Government can help promote U.S. businesses abroad, increase U.S. exports, attract new investment to the United States, and create American jobs. Secretary Clinton has invited high-level representatives from the White House, Departments of Commerce and Treasury, the Export-Import Bank, OPIC, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and U.S. business executives to participate in the conference.
Day one included remarks by Secretary Clinton, Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Tom Donohue, among others, as well as panel discussions and small group meetings on export promotion, increasing investment in the U.S., and key policy topics of interest to businesses abroad.
Day two of the conference included regional breakout sessions, hosted by the State Department’s regional assistant secretaries.
