Dallas as an International City

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Whether you are from China, Korea, Thailand or Brazil, Dallas welcomes you to do business in our city. As the ninth largest city in the United States, Dallas is a major player in the international economic, and marketplace. The Dallas Metroplex is home to over 2,250 global companies, including 22 Fortune 500 headquarters and 9 Global 500 headquarters. The 425 foreign-owned businesses and multinational corporations in the region are responsible for over 250,000 jobs. The region’s foreign trade has more than tripled in the last decade, and total import and export trade in 2006 between the Dallas area and the world topped $58.2B, up from $49.6B in 2005. This growth was driven largely by increased trade with China. The data shows how important free trade is to our regional market and local economy. China is Dallas’ top trading partner accounting for 29.1% of the Dallas area’s foreign trade, or $16.9B, compared with 27% or $13.4B in 2005. Growth in Dallas area's exports to China included gains in the electronics, medical instruments and plastics sectors. After China, the area’s biggest trading partners are South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan while Texas’ leading trading partner is Mexico.

In addition, the Dallas area is home to the third busiest passenger airport in the world for daily operations, one of only three airports averaging over 1,100 departures per day. Offering nearly 2,000 flights daily, DFW Airport provides nonstop service to 136 domestic and 39 international destinations worldwide. The DFW airport served 5.6 million international passengers in 2005 and has the fastest growing U.S. market for cargo trade.

Dallas is truly an international city and has something for everyone. According to Census figures, 26.3% of Dallas were born in another country. Over 73 languages are spoken in the homes of students enrolled in the Dallas Independent School District. In Dallas you can choose among 100 Korean churches, 14 Buddhist centers and more than 20 mosques. And in Dallas you will find about 20 Latino radio stations, six Chinese newspapers, seven Korean newspapers and 20 Vietnamese publications, 6-7 Chinese schools, 6 Chinese supermarkets, and Chinese banks.

International Business in Dallas

In October 2005, the Office of Economic Development of the City of Dallas created the International Business Bureau (IBB), an international team that focuses on international business development. The mission of the IBB is to facilitate international investment and global business collaboration with an emphasis on increasing the tax base and employment in the City of Dallas.

The International Business Bureau works very closely with Dallas Protocol whose contract we manage. Dallas Protocol is an entity of the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas whose primary function is to coordinate and represent the City in official international activities. For more information, please visit their website at www.dfwworld.org/.

The primary goal of the International Business Bureau is to increase international investment and create employment in Dallas through recruitment of foreign companies. Dallas is in the process of developing an Inland Port, which will allow the City to become a logistics hub and process shipments from Asia more rapidly for distribution in the United States. As such, the initial focus of our foreign recruitment efforts are in Asia (with a special emphasis on China) and on the NAFTA countries, (with a special emphasis on Mexico). In addition to emphasizing the leading companies in targeted Asian and Latin American countries, our recruitment efforts will also be tied to Dallas Industry Strategy developed by the Office of Economic Development (OED). This document provides the core focus of Economic Development's initiatives going forward, both domestically and internationally. Our recruitment focus will be on industry groups and key companies within those groups.