WASHINGTON — Strapped for cash, the US State Department is increasingly reaching out to private companies to help fund programs that bring Middle Eastern visitors to the US, seek to counter negative impressions of the US and promote economic development in the region.

Tara Sonenshine, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, told a Washington audience Wednesday [Jan 16] that her entire budget was only “a little over $1 billion” annually, of which half is spent on bringing foreigners to the United States. As a result, she said, the US government has increasingly turned to “public-private partnerships” to support its public diplomacy programs.

An example, Sonenshine said, is Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of students from the Middle East and North Africa at Indiana University.

Christine Davis, associate director of the university’s Institute for International Business, told Al-Monitor that the global beverage giant backed a program at the Kelley School of Business that in its first installment last summer drew 98 college students from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Morocco and Tunisia.