A different view of the geography of business investment and location is clearly evolving. Back in the United States, both business and government have been willing to embrace the very change that is also the source of so much insecurity in the world today. The economic prosperity that the United States has been enjoying is largely due to the fact that American companies and their leaders are meeting the challenge that the rapidly changing world economy presents. No where has this been truer than in my home state, New Jersey. We have the eighth largest state economy in the United States and if we were a nation, we'd have the world's sixteenth largest economy.
New Jersey is also an American leader in terms of foreign direct investment.
It is no exaggeration to say that world trade and investment are critical to my state's economic well being. Nearly 600,000 people are employed in New Jersey as a result of imports, exports and foreign direct investment. On both sides of the trade ledger, South Korea is a valued player in New Jersey. Last year, New Jersey firms exported almost a billion dollars of goods to South Korea, making this country New Jersey's eighth largest export market. The 33 South Korean companies operating in New Jersey provide more than 1,100 jobs to people in my state.