Silicon Valley Leaders Talk Overseas Strategy
MOUNTAIN VIEW (KCBS) – Some of the top CEOs in Silicon Valley met at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View Wednesday to talk about keeping the region competitive on the world stage.Doing business overseas can be lucrative for Silicon Valley companies, but it's not always easy. Patrick Lo, CEO of Netgear says India is a good example."Every month I basically sign a stack of documents in order to sell in India, you just have to maneuver through all that," said Lo.Foreign workers from India and other countries are also needed here in the U.S., but companies are often prevented from hiring them.Michael Splinter, CEO of Applied Materials, wants Washington to raise the cap on H1B visas."If you're smart enough to get a PhD in physics or electrical engineering, or chemical engineering, then you should be smart enough to stay in the United States and get a job to contribute to the economy here, but that's the common story here in Silicon Valley over the last 30 or 40 years," said Splinter.All the CEOs at the forum were optimistic about the U.S. economy, but they all called for lower corporate taxes so they can expand and hire more workers.
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