Binghamton University Center for International Business Advancement hosts global forum

Binghamton University hosted the third global trade and investment forum for the Southern Tier on April 13. The event focused on global capital flows, aiming to spark new ideas about business development in the Southern Tier.

“The great majority of businesses in the Southern Tier are small, and it’s important for small and emerging businesses to work with other companies, government agencies, universities and so on to accelerate their development and growth,” said Elena Iankova, founding director of the Binghamton University Center for International Business Advancement (CIBA) and adjunct professor in the School of Management.

The forum, hosted by CIBA and the University Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Partnerships, featured a diverse array of speakers who discussed how different sets of global capital flows (i.e. venture capital, mutual fund flows, capital spending budgets and the federal budget) can be adopted to sustain business development.

Global capital flow analysis can be used by companies or business owners to lend personal funds or borrow funds for their businesses. Cash flow can refer to the flow of venture capital for the research, development and operations of new businesses.

“By giving entrepreneurs and small businesses the tools and resources they need to succeed, we can turn ideas into real, marketable solutions that will lead to company growth, job creation and economic prosperity in the Southern Tier,” said Per Stromhaug, the University’s assistant vice president for Innovation and Economic Development.

School of Management Dean Upinder Dhillon said focusing on global capital flows is of vital importance for the global economy and our local region. “The boom and bust cycle from 2008 onward has disrupted the flow of capital internationally,” Dhillon said. “GDP growth is slowing across the globe, which is causing a significant decline in global cash flows.”

Dhillon added there are several key movements impacting the United States’ investment markets and national capital flows, including federal government policies, cross-border banking policies and China’s increase in short-term interest rates.

Andrew Karolyi — dean for Academic Affairs and distinguished professor of finance for the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University — delivered the keynote address. Karolyi is an internationally-known investment management scholar, with a specialization in the study of international financial markets. His work has been featured in the Journal of Finance, among other top journals, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.

Karolyi outlined the complex transformation in the world of global capital flows following the 2007-2008 financial crisis. According to him, today’s landscape of flows reveals a departure and de-linking from the Old World doctrine, which is marked by a gradual rise in capital flows owing to increasing financial integration and the prominent fundamental ‘push’ and ‘pull’ drivers of those cross-border movements.

“In the post-crisis era, global capital flows are characterized by heightened volatility as a result of subdued growth, shifting policies and heightened uncertainty in the global economy, slowing corporate investment, unconventional monetary policies and stagnation in global trade flows,” Karolyi said.

The forum — which drew more than 40 small-business owners, attorneys, development and government officials, scholars and entrepreneurs — also included two panels to highlight the opportunities and challenges for Southern Tier-based businesses hoping to take advantage of global capital in the post-crisis era:

• Grace Jahng, executive director of international banking, JP Morgan Chase, and Cliff Olin, managing director of Olin Capital Advisors, talked about best practices and trends for raising capital outside of the U.S.

• Rana Jazayerli, partner of Phillips Lytle LLC, and Shailesh Upreti, president and CEO of Charge CCCV LCC and tech-entrepreneur, discussed growth and opportunities with foreign capital.
  

“The EB-5 program is very popular among wealthy Chinese individuals and it has a lot of benefits as an alternative source of financing for business growth in the U.S.,” Jazayerli said of the investor program established to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors.

There are also challenges – EB-5 financing can be cheap but not easy. Jazayerli emphasized the benefits of establishing an EB-5 Regional Center in the Southern Tier to administer and grow local projects funded through the EB-5 Program.

“Funding is a key component of getting your business off the ground,” said Upreti, who has more than six patents in the U.S. and their equivalents in 35 countries. He added that, when done properly, global cash flow analysis can be used as a comprehensive and accurate tool in bank lending for small businesses and new technologies to help them develop and grow.

Karolyi said investment in global and emerging markets requires a careful analysis of the potential risks and benefits, which vary greatly from country to country and even from day to day.

“A lot has changed in the aftermath of the financial crisis,” Karolyi said. “It’s a brave new – and more complex – world for global capital flows that is giving policymakers and market participants many new challenges.”