Alabama’s universities and colleges contribute significantly to the economic development of the State of Alabama. In 2015/16 International students alone brought over US$220.6 million to the Alabama economy, nationally this aspect of higher education’s global engagement efforts contributed over US$32 billion to the US economy. The State of Alabama foreign direct investments in 2015 topped US$3.5 billion by foreign companies from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom to name a few.