Foreign Investment Could Help Rebuild America

America should encourage global public investors, foreign asset owners – including sovereign wealth funds, government pension agencies, state managed plans and foreign currency reserve funds, a group that collectively controls unknown trillions of dollars in assets – to invest in the US economy, including in infrastructure development, the green economy, business investment and technology innovation, according to areportdue to be published on Friday by well-known, non-partisan Washington DC based think-tank, the Brookings Institution.

代理在他们自己的能力,not on the behalf of the organizations they work for, the reports’ authors include a group of executives sophisticated both in the ways of finance and of Washington. Among them are Goldman Sachs managing director Richard Kimball Jr, Blackstone Group senior managing director Raffiq Nathoo, Daniel Zwirn, the former CEO of hedge fund DB Zwirn, Joel Moser, a partner with the law firm Bingham McCutchen and an expert in infrastructure, and Gordon Goldstein, a senior vice president with private equity firm Silver Lake.

They argue that given the conservative investment and management practices of leading so-called global public investors such as the $627 billion Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the $37 billion Korean Investment Corporation “xenophobic or paranoid reactions to foreign capital are not warranted”. Countries, including the UK, Canada and Australia, are already seeing or seeking investments, particularly in infrastructure, from these global entities. To stay competitive, the authors contend, the US should also be encouraging this large capital base, where sovereign wealth funds alone account for an estimated $4 trillion.

“A lot of Americans worry about foreign money” investing in this country says Brookings Institution director of Governance Studies Darrell West who worked on the report, entitled ‘Rebuilding America: The Role of Foreign Capital, Sovereign Wealth Funds and Global Public Investors.’ But in actual fact these sovereign funds tend to be very prudent, long-term investors who are not looking to take a controlling interest in companies or investments. And, West argues, “we believe foreign capital can play a very constructive role in the United Sates.” While some sectors and industries, such as those related to national security, will continue to be sensitive, other sectors of the economy could really benefit from the economic input. In particular he says “infrastructure is an area where foreign capital can be very helpful.”

Massive state and federal budget deficits, along with a significant need for new infrastructure investments in everything from bridges to wind farms, means the US is in the midst of a well-recognized infrastructure crisis. “The infrastructure challenge is one that is going to last decades,” says report co-author Goldstein. And these foreign asset owners, with their long term investment horizons and desire for steady returns, can offer a solution.

近年来，国外主权资金拥有关键美国公司和机构的想法一直是政治推翻的主题。2006年的国会批判由美国联合国家企业DP世界接管各种关键的美国港口是如此激烈，它剥夺了这笔交易。与此同时，在2007年底，其中一些非美国实体投资花旗银行和巴克莱等公司等企业非常重要。

The Brookings group conducted their research into global public investors, talking with foreign investors, government officials, analysts and others, over the past year-and-a-half. Their timing, Goldstein says, “coincided with a period of a lot of populist rhetoric coming out of Washington, what many people perceived in the US business community as a hostile public policy environment.” The environment meant many global public investors were keen to keep a low profile but also to learn more about a Washington that, Goldstein says, they often found to be increasingly opaque and confusing.

One of the reports key recommendations is the establishment of a Global Public Investors Round table to facilitate such a dialog between US policy makers, the financial industry and these foreign asset owners. “Investors need clarity, one of the most chilling variables in the equation for investment is uncertainty,” Goldstein argues. “If you can take practical steps to address that, it serves the interest of global investors.”

In an area that is of particular interest to hedge fund manager and Brookings trustee Daniel Zwirn -- that is, developing clean technology -- the report also argues for the establishment of a so-called Green Bank. The bank would facilitate the investment by foreign and domestic asset owners in green technology, providing a level of private financing that could stimulate this area of the economy. Some public sovereign funds are already making their own investments in the green economy. The Brookings report points out that in early 2008 the $85 billion Qatar Investment Authority made a commitment to the Qatar-UK Clean Technology Investment Fund, a fund that was set up as a partnership between the investment authority and Carbon Trust Investments, a UK-based not-for-profit. In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted the importance of the clean technology sector to the country’s future, economic and otherwise.

Brookings报告，专门在发表于机构投资者之前提供，是对参与美国经济的外国公共资金的优点看涨。亚博赞助欧冠它确认确实存在令人担忧的领域，并且这些主权实体可以通过他们的投资来追求政策举措。例如，中国对采矿，矿产和能源的投资是其外交政策的重要领域。但它花费一点时间专注于否定，认为这首都在那里，积极寻求投资，并以越来越多的全球和日益透明的方式这样做。因此，这位美国政策和商业社区，特别是在这些现金束缚时，弄清楚如何最好地利用它。布鲁克斯将在华盛顿州的公共论坛上举办一个公共论坛。讨论他们的report及其在星期五的调查结果。