United States of America

The sluggish US economy appeared to bounce back in the third quarter of 2003 – the US Commerce Department reported economic growth at a blistering 8.2% on an annualised basis.

The US economy is the largest and most advanced on the planet, highly diversified and well-developed. Heavy investment in R&D keeps the country at the forefront of technology and competitiveness.

In the US, though, bigger does not mean simpler. Investors must navigate their way through a maze of state, county, major town and suburb economic development agencies – about 80,000 in all – which have varying mandates to offer incentives. There is no national investment promotion body responsible for setting and granting incentives.

In addition, incentive levels vary considerably from state to state and from suburb to suburb according to unemployment rates and political persuasions. The power of state governments also varies. In some states, the state finance authority takes almost all investment incentive-related decisions. In other states, incentives are not granted at state level but by county and city economic development agencies. There are millions of different incentives available to investors in the US but most tend to fall into one of three categories: tax breaks, cash grants and cheap loans.