Foreign Direct Investment in North Carolina

Abstract

North Carolina has witnessed dramatic growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) over the last twenty years. As a result, one in every ten workers in the private, non-farm sector, and over 13 percent of all manufacturing workers are now employed in more than 750 foreign-owned firms throughout the state. Though two-thirds of the state's counties host at least one foreignowned
establishment, the majority of FDI flows to the state·s metropolitan areas. This paper describes the motivations behind the establishment of foreign operations, highlights attributes of the state and its metropolitan areas that are conducive to FDI, illustrates patterns and trends of foreign-firm location, and concludes with a few remarks about the relationship of FDI to
economic development in the state.