Next Wednesday, Governor Granholm leaves for a week long overseas investment mission to Israel and Kuwait – this will be the governor’s sixth jobs and investment mission since 2004. Previous overseas missions resulted in 37 companies announcing over $818 million in new investment and more than 9,000 jobs created and retained for Michigan.

Whie overseas, the governor will focus on companies that can bring us investment and jobs in the areas of high-tech automotive, alternative energy, homeland security, and environmental technology industries.

In Israel, Granholm will meet with companies already doing business in Michigan as well as companies considering expansions into North America, including Cleantech Ventures (alternative energy), Raviv ACS (automotive), Inspire Investments (venture capital), Mekorot (water re-use), Tadir Gan Group (automotive), and Elbit Systems (homeland security/defense).

The governor will also meet with members of the American Israel Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel, the American Israel Friendship League, and the country’s leading government and industry experts in water treatment technologies. Granholm also is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior officials of the government.

The governor will then travel to Kuwait to meet with top government officials and visit Dow Chemical’s joint venture EQUATE.

“Israel and Kuwait have a mix of industries that closely mirror the new industries we want to grow in Michigan,” said Granholm. “We think there are rich opportunities to partner and create jobs here in Michigan.”

Stay tuned for updates!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Jobs Mission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.