One international company is relocating and another expanding in Howard County as a resultof a recent scouting trip to Bangalore, India, by county and business officials from Howard.
Intercontinental Export Import Inc., a recycling company, and Prism Microsystems, an information technology security company, will be in the same building on Centre Park Drive in Columbia.
“Already this trip has had dividends,” County Executive Ken Ulman said at a news conference Tuesday where he showed slides from his February trip to India.
Ulman traveled with Chief of Staff Aaron Greenfield, Economic Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Dick Story and several Indian-born county businesspeople for three days of meetings and visits.
The trip was intended to promote Howard to Indian businesses. Howard is home to several Indian-born businesspeople, and many international companies have offices in India.
To continue courting international businesses, Ulman plans to create a Howard-India trade committee.
The group would meet regularly and advise on incentives to encourage Indian businesses to relocate to Howard and provide support for those businesses, Ulman said.
“We need to set up a permanent infrastructure that lets folks know there is a place to invest in,” he said.
Intercontinental Export Import, which has 12 facilities in the United States in addition to locations in Canada, Mexico, India and China, will move its headquarters from Odenton to Columbia. The company plans to add 50 jobs in the next year. The company is broadening into postconsumer recycling and environmentally friendly offices and industrial buildings, said Saurabh Naik, who spent time with Ulman on the India trip.
Naik started the company 21 years ago in his basement buying and selling recycled plastic.
Prism is moving its headquarters to a different building in Columbia and adding 30 jobs this year, said CEO A.N. Ananth. Howard?s infrastructure, well-educated residents and proximity to Washington, D.C., make it an ideal place to expand, he said.
“Prism is a happy participant in this globalized economy, one where the geographic boundaries matter less,” Ananth said.
The trip cost about $35,000 and was paid for by the Howard County Economic Development Authority.
