Bilateral Trade

Situated at the epicentre of the nation's largest business corridor, New Jersey is where the world comes to do business. Whether you are a new business start-up, a growing company considering expanding in the state, a large corporation about to move or expand, or an international exporter seeking to increase distribution, New Jersey has key advantages to help your business grow.

After India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries acquired two New Jersey laboratory facilities a few years ago, it gave serious thought to closing the labs and moving their functions to its U.S. headquarters in Detroit. New Jersey officials convinced Sun otherwise. In March 2009, the specialty pharmaceutical company executed a grant agreement under the state's Business Employment Incentive Program (BEIP) worth an estimated $2.38 million over 10 years in exchange for the company's commitment to stay in New Jersey, create 318 new jobs in Cranbury and invest more than $4 million in the facility.

Shanghaibio's requirements were different. When this global specialty R&D services business, headquartered in Shanghai's Bio/Pharma Valley region, was looking to set up a U.S. location, it found just the space it needed at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's (EDAs) Commercialization Centre for Innovative Technologies in North Brunswick, N.J.. The Commercialization Centre, one of the more significant life sciences and technology incubators in the nation, is located within the Technology Centre of New Jersey, which currently is home to more than 30 emerging and established life sciences businesses.

By establishing its U.S. base in New Jersey - known as the "Medicine Chest of the World" because the state serves as a hub for many of the world's more prominent pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses - the company says it "is ideally positioned to address challenges that global biopharmas encounter when outsourcing critical R&D functions to a partner half-a-world away."

New Jersey Offers Distinct Advantages

These projects are illustrative of New Jersey's efforts to work with foreign-based businesses and prove that it is, indeed, a small world - a world often centred in New Jersey. And, for a good reason.

Governor Jon S. Corzine's pro-growth, pro-business initiatives capitalize on New Jersey's strong advantages and support the state's aggressive efforts to attract and support foreign investment. A talented workforce that makes New Jersey a leader in innovation, R&D and the state's location in the heart of one of the world's larger and more vibrant workplaces between New York City and Philadelphia are among its principal strengths, but there are many other advantages as well. For example:

• About 1,400 multinational businesses representing in excess of 40 countries have sites in New Jersey, and two dozen businesses on the Fortune 500 list have facilities here.
• The state offers a tremendous transportation network that includes 35,000 miles of interconnected roadways that help move commuters and goods efficiently to their destinations, one of the world's larger and busier airports, and an integrated commuter rail network that carries over 830,000 passengers each weekday.
• A majority of the region's seaport, trucking, rail and warehouse distribution facilities are located in New Jersey. In fact, Expansion Magazine recently ranked New Jersey first in the U.S. for transportation, warehousing and highway connectivity and second for railroad service.
• There are 61 colleges and universities in the state. More than 1.7 million New Jersey residents are college graduates and the state ranks seventh in the nation in the number of Ph.D. scientists and engineers per 1,000 workers.
• Traditionally a pioneer state in many scientific disciplines, New Jersey was ranked second in the nation for technology and innovation in 2008. With one of the more extensive fiberoptic networks in the world, the state was also ranked first in broadband telecommunications and broadband penetration last year.

Strong Focus on Tech and 
Life Sciences

Because technology and the life sciences are leading forces driving New Jersey's economy, they are at the forefront of the state's focus. The Edison Innovation Fund is a state effort managed by the EDA in consultation with the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology and the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education that offers a continuum of broad support to the technology and life sciences communities.

This support ranges from various forms of financial assistance to modern, state-of-the-art laboratory and office space such as the Technology Centre of New Jersey located within specially created Edison Innovation Zones in Camden, the greater New Brunswick area and Newark. These zones are designed to stimulate collaboration between State research colleges and universities and the business world in strategic areas that complement economic development.

Neurotrax, with headquarters in Newark, N.J. and R&D facilities in Israel, was able to avail itself of two New Jersey programs to grow its business in 2007. This medical technology company, formed in 2000 and located at the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Enterprise Development Centre, finalized a $250,000 Edison Innovation Fund investment to be used as growth capital and executed a BEIP grant estimated at $244,000 over 10 years in conjunction with its plans to establish a permanent New Jersey base and add 15 new jobs over two years. The company had also considered New York and Connecticut for its U.S. headquarters.

State Supports Bilateral Trade

The EDA is a state financing and development agency that works to strengthen New Jersey's economy by retaining and growing businesses through financial assistance, by renewing communities, and by promoting the state's strategic advantages to attract domestic and international businesses. The EDA's International Trade Division (ITD) helps coordinate New Jersey's efforts to encourage foreign investment by providing a one-stop assistance program for New Jersey companies interested in expanding their business to international markets. Its main responsibilities include promoting New Jersey's exports, attracting new foreign direct investment, offering business advocacy services, and building and maintaining relationships with the foreign diplomatic, governmental and business communities.

The ITD offers various programs to support businesses that are planning to expand overseas sales, through export, or to identify new strategic international markets for their products and services. Additionally, the ITD works to proactively identify and secure new sources of foreign direct investment into the state and supports New Jersey's five Foreign Trade Zones located strategically throughout the state.

Strengthening collaboration with its trading partners for both imports and exports is important to New Jersey because international trade is such a critical element in Governor Corzine's comprehensive Economic Growth Strategy and the state's overall efforts to create and maintain jobs.
In July, Governor Corzine signed Executive Order No. 147 to enhance trade and business opportunities between New Jersey and Italy by supporting collaboration among the Governor's Office of Economic Growth, the EDA and the New Jersey/Italy Trade Council to promote trade and job creation and retention. This partnership will help New Jersey take advantage of the significant business synergies that exist between the state and Italy and will open new pathways to economic opportunity. It will also serve as a model for agreements with other trading partners.