Mona Shah & Associates at Morgan Stanley US-China Economic Discussion
August 5, 2014
Mona Shah, Esq. and Yi Song, Esq. were honored with special invitations to attend the Discussion at Morgan Stanley New York City Headquarters with Dr. Stephen Roach on the Codependency of US-China Economies.
Chinese direct foreign investment (FDI) in the United States doubled in 2013 reaching the total deal value to a new record high of $14 billion, driven by large-scale acquisitions in food, energy and real estate. Private firms are now dominating capital inflows, accounting for more than 80% of transactions and more than 70% of total transaction value. It is expected that Chinese interest in US assets to remain strong in 2014 because of aggressive economic reforms in China, a more liberal policy environment, despite some mixed messages in the currency exchange, for Chinese outbound investors.
Compared to the general China outbound FDI to the US, EB-5 investment is only a small portion. To date, it is estimated that the EB-5 Program has raised $8.6 billion in total (85% from China) and created at least 57,300 jobs since 1990 the launch of the Program.
Dr. Roach is the former chief economist of Morgan Stanley and is currently teaching at Yale University. He laid the pitfalls of the current China-US economic relationship. He highlighted the conflicts at the center of current economic and political tensions, including disputes over trade policies and intellectual property rights, sharp contrasts in leadership styles, macroeconomic strategy, the role of the Internet, the recent dispute over cyber-hacking and more.
Dr. Roach concluded with an assessment of the opportunities that await both US and China, the world’s top two economic powers, if they rebalance their growth models. This discussion provided insight into the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which was held in Beijing in early July. The Dialogue focuses on addressing the challenges and opportunities that both countries face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long-term economic and strategic interests.