Tennessee tops in foreign investment last year

photo In this file photo, Seung Hwa Suh, vice chairman and CEO of Hankook Tire Co., speaks to reporters about the company's decision to build its first U.S. plant in Clarksville, Tenn., as Gov. Bill Haslam, left, looks on. The $800 million facility is expected to create 1,800 jobs.

Tennessee's Southern hospitality is reaching around the globe, drawing the highest level of business investments from foreign companies of any state in the country.

A new study by the IBM Institute for Business Values ranked Tennessee No. 1 in the nation for foreign direct investment job commitments last year. Georgia ranked No. 3, behind only Tennessee and Texas.

The new Global Location Trends report cited 52 commitments from foreign-owned businesses that created 9,215 jobs and $1.68 billion in capital investment in Tennessee. Nearly 40 percent of all Tennessee's new jobs committed last year and nearly one-third of all capital investment committed in the state came from foreign direct investment.

Major foreign projects in 2013 included South Korean-owned Hankook Tire Co. (1,800 new jobs, $800 million investment), Japanese-owned Calsonic Kansei North America (1,200 new jobs, $109.6 capital investment) and Swiss-owned UBS (1,000 new jobs, $36.5 million capital investment).

"Tennessee is clearly an attractive place for foreign-owned companies to invest," Roel Spee, the global leader of IBM Plant Location International, said in a statement. "The state's first place ranking illustrates just how strong a competitor Tennessee is in the global marketplace and the momentum the state possesses in recruiting new foreign investment projects."

The Volunteer State is home to 864 foreign-based establishments that have invested over $30.1 billion in capital and employ more than 116,000 Tennesseans. The state's top 10 countries for investments include Japan, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium.

Upcoming Events