Coming To America? Global Companies Lay Down Roots

U.S. companies aren't the only ones finding the nation more fertile ground for advanced manufacturing than in the past. Global corporations have overlooked traditional outsourcing magnets such as Singapore to invest in small-town America.

Global Foundries, an Abu Dhabi-based company, recently laid down roots in upstate New York for its $7 billon semiconductor plant, hiring 1,300 local residents. The company's decision makers were impressed by the town of Malta's investments in the region's infrastructure and workforce.

It doesn't hurt that a network of 17 community colleges and one local high school has begun to supply the area with highly trained high-tech workers of need to Global Foundries, which produces silicon wafers for semiconductors.

"These machines, our technicians, are doing extremely advanced manufacturing work," observed company spokesman Travis Bullard recently to ABC News.

More, however, still needs to be done to build the workforce there to the levels demanded by advanced manufacturing but it was enough to get the company to invest in the region.

Global Foundries is not alone among foreign companies choosing the United States over other countries as a manufacturing location. Germany's Siemens, Scandinavia's Electrolux and the United Kingdom's Rolls-Royce have all opened facilities in various parts of the nation.

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