Vermont delegation leaving for Asia
By Louis Porter, Vermont Press Bureau, TimesArgus.com
Gov. James Douglas, two other state officials and executives from Vermont businesses leave today for Asia to try and attract foreign business investors to the state.
In exchange for making an investment of $500,000 or more, foreign investors can receive green cards for the U.S., effectively in some cases jumping the line on the visa process. After two years in order to remain in the program, investors must demonstrate the projects have created ten jobs or more and meet other requirements.
Douglas said he doesn’t have a problem with the system of allowing preferential visas for investors, who have brought investment to the Jay Peak and Sugarbush ski resorts and which he hopes will put more money into Vermont firms. Overall immigration law needs to be reformed as well, in part to help farmers in Vermont and elsewhere be able to hire workers, Douglas said.
The program will help fulfill “the need to do everything we possibly can to position Vermont for recovery,” Douglas said.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont proposed an extension of the temporary EB-5 visa program, which passed the Senate Tuesday and is on its way to President Barack Obama. Vermont has also just won permission to use the program, which had been restricted to businesses related to tourism, for other firms involved in manufacturing and other work.
“This program has become an economic engine in Vermont, and we have proven it with the creation of hundreds of jobs,” Leahy said in a statement. “I want Vermont to stay on the cutting edge in harnessing these investments for economic development throughout our state. The biggest impediment to this program is its lack of permanence.”
Taxpayers will cover the roughly $5,000-per-person cost of the trip for Douglas, two Agency of Commerce officials and two state troopers. The private business people, including officials from the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, will pay their own way on the two-week trip which will include stops in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.
The governor arranged a previous economic development trip to China in 2007. Douglas and Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn Tuesday did not point to any specific trade or business dealings produced by that trip, focused on building business for energy and environmental firms.
But Asia is growing in importance as a trading partner for the state, and it is important to have alliances and relationships with companies and officials there, Douglas and Dorn said.
“It is not like doing business in Vermont or in the United States,” said Dorn, who will accompany Douglas on the trip. “You don’t walk into the room and do a deal.”
A half-dozen Vermont companies that have approval or are seeking it for EB-5 investors are accompanying Douglas on the Asia trip. Another half-dozen people from the state who are interested in the possibility but are not applying – yet – to the program are also going along.
New Car Plant Coming to Alabama
by Samuel Solomon, theplainsman.com
A start-up automotive company focused on producing all eco-friendly vehicles will join top automakers such as Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, International and Toyota in calling Alabama home.
Hybrid Kinetic “HK” Motors and Gov. Bob Riley publicized plans to build a new green-vehicle manufacturing plant in Baldwin County at a press conference last Thursday.
“It didn’t take long for Alabama to become a leader in the automotive industry,” Riley said in a press release. “Now as America and the world begin making a historic transition to a green economy, we look to make Alabama a leader in the production of next-generation, clean-tech automobiles.”
The company chose Alabama as its central manufacturing location because of its economy and quality workforce, according to the press release.
The plant is supposed to create more than 5,000 jobs.
HK Motors’ flagship engine is a 1.5-liter hybrid, which runs on gasoline, electricity and compressed natural gas, said Yung “Benjamin” Yueng, HK Motors chairman, in a press release.
“Our cutting edge multi-fuel hybrid power-train system delivers excellent performance while reducing CO2 emissions to exceed Euro-2012 and EPA guidelines,” Yueng said.
The plant location is ideal as Alabama is situated in the middle of one of the country’s largest and most abundant natural gas fields, said Frank Burt, Baldwin County Commissioner.
“We here in Alabama are really blessed with natural gas,” Burt said.
Many from the international community have contributed, Burt said.
Those working on the project include an Italian design team, as well as a engineering firm from Germany.
The majority of investors are from China, and there are others from India and Brazil.
Investors are attracted through the national governments EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa program. The program grants U.S. Permanent Residency (Green Cards) to non-citizens who invest in American businesses.
The requirement is an investment of $1 million or more in a business and the creation of full-time employment for at least 10 U.S. workers.
“China owns so much of our American dollars and credit,” Burt said. “It is a wonderful opportunity that a great number of those dollars would come back from China and be reinvested right here in Alabama and Baldwin County.”
Yeung and the HK Motors’ executive board have years of experience in and around the automotive industry.
“He’s done this before,” said Todd Stacy, press secretary for the governor’s office.
Stacy credited Yueng and his company with creating one of the largest automobile companies in China.
“We are aiming to become the premier hybrid vehicle producer in the U.S.,” said Colin Legerton, HK Motors public relations specialist.
HK Motors vehicles will focus on efficiency, safety and performance.
“It certainly is an exciting venture for Alabama and really for the whole automotive industry,” Stacey said.
Translator
By N2H
