MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Business leaders tell Obama how millions of jobs could be created

GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt will present recommendations on Tuesday

President Barack Obama could create millions of jobs by attracting more foreign capital to the United States, helping entrepreneurs and being more aggressive in energy, business leaders said.

In a new report, the chief executives of GE, Intel, Boeing and other companies also backed White House proposals to fix infrastructure like airports, railways and electricity grids and to expand broadband Internet networks as a way to boost hiring and speed up flagging growth.

“If Washington can agree on anything, it should be this -- and it should be now,” the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness said in the report, to be presented to Obama at a meeting in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt, who also chairs the non-partisan advisory panel, said the long list of proposals -- which include streamlining drug approvals, reducing costs of initial public offerings and improving air traffic control -- could have a big impact taken together.

“What we want to offer the president is a very broad set of ideas that can help more the economy forward,” he said. “It's comprehensive and it's specific.”

The jobs council, which also includes executives from Facebook, Eastman Kodak and DuPont, was created in February to help the White House find ways to promote growth.

Its initial findings in June focused on measures with an immediate jobs impact, like cutting red tape that delays public works projects and speeding up tourist visa applications.

The latest report focuses speeding job creation over a two- to five-year period. It includes proposals the council said “have the potential to create millions of jobs in the years ahead while improving America's competitive standing.”

It seeks to bolster entrepreneurship by changing student loan repayment rules for graduates who own or work for new companies and offering visas to foreign-born entrepreneurs who form or join start-ups in the United States.

The jobs council also calls for a speedier process of immigrant visa decisions. It proposes foreign graduates who earn US degrees in science, technology, engineering and math should get green cards offering them permanent residency.

“Delays all too often result in these talented people opting to start or join companies in other countries, where they will compete against American firms,” the report said.

It also recommends lower corporate taxes for new companies in their first three years, a reduced capital gains rate for investors buying equity in young firms and other measures to encourage people to launch start-up companies.

The report calls for tax reforms to make it more competitive for companies to locate in the United States, part of an effort to attract more foreign direct investment.

It said rising wage and operating costs in India and China have made the United States more attractive to firms that have shifted their business abroad in recent years but may want to return because of strong US universities and research hubs.