Archive
Agency: Department of State
Title: State Department Provides Improved Service to the American Business Community
Background Information
The Department of State has been engaged in the promotion of U.S. business interests since the beginning of our Republic. With the Vice President's National Performance Review (NPR) and its recommendations aimed at improving our promotion of U.S. business overseas, we dedicated new resources exclusively to business services. As a result of NPR and the Department's own "reinventing government" exercise we have taken many steps to improve the Department's service to the American business community.
We started by creating the position of Coordinator for Business Affairs and went on to launch a number of initiatives designed to provide overseas posts with additional business promotion resources; upgraded the commercial training that Ambassadors, DCMs, economic, political, consular, and country desk officers receive; and improved coordination on commercial issues within the Department and with other trade promotion agencies.
Initiatives deserving of special mention are:
- Our initiative in the OECD to support greater acceptance of laws against illicit payments.
- Establishment of a Commercial Coordinating Committee within the Department to improve internal and interagency coordination of important international trade initiatives.
- A pilot project in which Foreign Service spouses were hired to perform commercial work in four non-Foreign Commercial Service posts.
- A $250,000 Business Facilitation Incentive Fun established to provide on-Foreign Commercial Service posts seed money for expanded trade promotion efforts.
Main NPR Category: Customer Service
Related NPR Categories: Cutting Red Tape
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