Foreign Firms Eye Stimulus Dollars

Washington Post
3/23/2009

Spain’s Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia, visited New York and Washington last week on an unusual mission for one of Europe’s most glamorous celebrity couples: to drum up business for Spanish companies from the U.S. economic stimulus package.

“Only by working together with U.S. businesses and government, as well as coordinating our needs and priorities, can we get our countries, and world, back on track,” Felipe said at a Manhattan business luncheon, which also featured former vice president Al Gore.

U.S. firms are not the only ones hoping to cash in on the $787 billion stimulus program. Foreign nations and companies are stepping up their lobbying efforts in Washington and in state capitals, hoping to gain vital business in hard times. Hundreds of foreign-owned companies, many of them with significant operations in the United States, are selling their expertise in clean energy, high-speed transit and other technologies that undergird key aspects of President Obama’s stimulus efforts.

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