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Seattle: In a move to drive foreign direct investment (FDI) between Brisbane and the Seattle region USA, Invest Brisbane and enterpriseSeattle, the two regional investment promotion agencies (IPAs), signed a new alliance on May 13 2009 in Seattle.
The strategic alliance will create the first regional investment agency partnership for both Brisbane and the Seattle region, focused on sharing knowledge and talent to develop FDI within knowledge-based sectors.
The alliance follows Invest Brisbane’s recent accolade as World’s Best IPA for 2007/08. The IPA is also a division of Brisbane Marketing, Brisbane’s economic development agency.
Invest Brisbane Director, Daniel Havas said from the initial meeting with enterpriseSeattle one year ago, Seattle had been identified as a region that was well matched with Brisbane’s sector capabilities.
“A critical piece to the strategic alliance was the common strengths in knowledge-based sectors in Brisbane and Seattle, specifically in the creative industries, advanced manufacturing, information communication technology and biotechnology,” Mr Havas said.
“At the same time, the global investment climate has tightened and regions have become more competitive than ever before for foreign investment. The regional partnership approach will be critical in attracting foreign investors and helping companies in both regions to expand.
“The alliance is also key to fulfilling our commitment to the development of Brisbane as a strong, commercially competitive and global location for business.
Signing the agreement from enterpriseSeattle was Executive Vice President & COO, Jeff Marcell. He said Brisbane and Seattle have many synergies, evidenced by the number of companies present in both regions such as Hatch, Stratos Global Corporation, Insitu, Medtronic, Microsoft and others.
“Today’s agreement is a deliberate step in the formal recognition of the synergies between Brisbane and Seattle, and a creative approach to leverage each other’s technologies, talent and innovation,” Mr Marcell said.
Both regional IPAs also share a strong focus on steering their economy towards knowledge-based sectors, drive commercial and corporate investment projects as well as having a strong ethic of collaboration with international enterprises.
Investment promotion activities under this creative alliance will include the provision of market information; access to professional services such as marketing, industry expertise and networks; and support on investment projects.
Other bilateral relationships that exist between the two regions is the Queensland and Washington State MOU (biotechnology sector only), and joint university partnerships in Washington with The University of Queensland (UQ) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
More information about the alliance
Invest Brisbane and enterpriseSeattle alliance is focused only on regional FDI and, subject to mutual agreement, the alliance may extend to include other emerging regions in the future.
Areas that represent common strengths in both markets and will form the initial focus of the alliance: Information Communication Technology (ICT) Creative Industries Advanced Manufacturing Health and Life Sciences Aerospace and Aviation Clean Technology Food and Beverage The alliance was born from the BIO International Convention in San Diego, California where the two regional IPAs met and identified strong commercial synergies.
The alliance will be measured by the traditional investment attraction metrics of job growth and capital investment.
Companies based in both regions:
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