Governor Andy Beshear is off to Asia.

The governor will visit Japan and South Korea on an economic development trip.

Kentucky is home to Japanese and Korean companies that employ thousands of Kentuckians.

The governor talked about the trip yesterday.

So the end of this week and next, I'm going to be traveling there and working to bring new jobs to Kentucky as I meet with 17 individual companies, including Toyota Blue, Everlast Oval s Escort and Hitachi, which are currently employing or will employ more than 15,000.

Now, they currently employ 15,000 Kentuckians and have announced another 7000 new jobs.

During my administration, we've announced over $10 billion in investments by the companies I'm visiting.

So this is a good time to say thank you.

It's also true that in the past, almost every year or every other year, Kentucky governors would travel to Japan specifically.

That's something that I've wanted to do.

But with a pandemic, tornadoes, floods and everything else we've faced, we've had to push back.

As you know, Japan is the top country for foreign direct investment in Kentucky as our state is home to 200 Japanese owned facilities that employ 47,000 residents.

And now seven Korean owned facilities operate in the Commonwealth, with six others announced during this administration, which will push employment by Korean companies to 6700 people.

Also yesterday, the governor announced Kentucky would have $1,000,000,000 budget surplus for a fourth consecutive year.

Today, State Representative Jason Petri, a Republican and chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, said the Republican led Kentucky General Assembly deserves credit for the surplus and the resulting investments.

In a statement, he said, quote, This unfailing commitment to acting as stewards of taxpayer dollars provided the opportunity to invest more than $2.7 billion over the next two years to improve road, rail, river air and water infrastructure, as well as make targeted investments in school facilities, public pensions, tourism and community development and quote.