WASHINGTON D.C. – Governor Eric J. Holcomb concluded a two-day economic development trip to Washington D.C. yesterday, meeting with global executives, business leaders and government partners at the 2024 SelectUSA Investment Summit. The Governor, who was joined by Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg, participated in the 10th summit hosted by SelectUSA – a U.S. Department of Commerce program dedicated to facilitating job-creating business investment in the United States by convening thousands of investors, companies, economic development organizations and industry experts to enable investment opportunities.
Gov. Holcomb joined a gubernatorial panel focused on talent development for the clean energy era. The Governor highlighted Indiana’s comprehensive approach to talent attraction and retention as well as skills development, while showcasing the state’s increasing momentum as a global leader in clean energy generation and storage. The state has been recognized as the No. 4 state in the country for new clean energy under development and will soon be home to the largest solar installation in the U.S. following completion of Doral Renewable’s Mammoth Solar. Additionally, Indiana has attracted more than $12.2 billion of committed investments in the state’s battery sector and is part of a Midwest collaboration for advancing hydrogen technology – known as MachH2 – that was awarded designation as a federal technology hub.
At SelectUSA, Gov. Holcomb also participated in a gubernatorial roundtable hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The discussion focused on the impact of foreign direct investment across the United States and the role economic security, national security and workforce development are impacting business investment and job creation trends across the county.
Gov. Holcomb and Sec. Rosenberg met with key partners, including Reta Jo Lewis, president and chair of the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) of the United States, to further Indiana’s two-way trade across the globe. EXIM is an independent federal agency that provides financial assistance to U.S. businesses – with a particularly focus on small businesses – to help them export goods and services to international customers.
The Governor met with foreign government officials, including Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, Irish Ambassador to the U.S.
Indiana is home to 49 Ireland-based businesses, including companies like Allegion, Aptiv and Wiistream, that together employ more than 4,000 Hoosiers.
While in Washington, D.C., Gov. Holcomb and the delegation also met Saeed Amidi, founder and CEO of Plug and Play. In March, the venture capital firm cut the ribbon on its Indiana office in Warsaw that is focused on growing the medtech industry through collaborations with the region’s prominent life sciences sector and industry leaders like Zimmer Biomet and Paragon Medical. At SelectUSA, the Governor and IEDC team met with dozens of executives of U.S. and international businesses and investors.
The Indiana delegation also included several of the IEDC’s international office representatives located across Asia and Europe who are focused on growing new investment opportunities in Indiana. In 2023, the state secured commitments from 36 international businesses to locate or grow in Indiana, together planning to invest $20.49 billion in Indiana – representing a 182% increase from 2022 and accounting for 71% of the total capital investment committed to Indiana in 2023. Together, these businesses plan to create more than 8,500 new jobs with average wages of $39.98/hour or more than $83,000 annually.
