For the last four years, Ken Stewart has traveled the world selling Georgia to foreign investors.

His focus will be unchanged when he heads to China June 26 on what will be his final overseas trip as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

The department announced earlier this month that Mr. Stewart would leave to accept an advisory post at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Heidi Green, current deputy commissioner for global commerce, will move up to Mr. Stewart's slot.

Though it's his fifth and final trip to China, Mr. Stewart isn't shaking things up. As he's done before, Mr. Stewart will lead a team of Georgia professionals in conducting “Invest in the USA” seminars in the cities of Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The only changes are in the audience and the quality of the presentations.

“We've gotten better at content and delivery, so I think we're being more effective,” Mr. Stewart said, noting that his team has learned more about what Chinese companies need to know, like the difference between federal and state taxes and what it means to own private property.

The state is working once again with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, or CCPIT, a Chinese government trade promotion agency. It's a “win-win” arrangement: CCPIT provides a service for its members, and Georgia gets the credit and exposure, Mr. Stewart said.

Though China is still largely a “country of the future” with regard to foreign investment, it will be important to be top of mind when the floodgates open, he said.

“There's a clustering effect that will happen. The state that does the best job at making this a comfortable place for them is going to get a significant amount of foreign investment,” he added.

An international trip is a fitting end to Mr. Stewart's tenure, during which the state launched a variety of initiatives to promote Georgia on the global stage.

“We've roughly doubled the amount of international investment in Georgia over the last four years,” and increased by one-third the percentage of projects and capital investment coming from overseas, Mr. Stewart said.

The success is a function of the state's forward-looking strategy, which “recognizes the new world economy as it is,” he said.

This insight will help in his position at Georgia Tech.

“I'll be doing work for Georgia Tech somewhat like I've been doing for the state, very strategically connecting companies to this world-class research capability that we have in the state,” he said.

During Mr. Stewart's tenure, Georgia opened an economic office in Beijing, its 10th worldwide, and the department aided company relocations and expansions that produced $11.4 billion in investment and created 62,000 jobs, according to a Georgia Tech news release.

Accompanying Mr. Stewart will be Mark Lytle, the Georgia economic development department's director of foreign investment; Stella Sixing Xu, a China project manager for the department; Emily Fu, an Atlanta realtor and state envoy for China; Jorge Fernandez, vice president for global commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber; Kevin Fletcher, vice president for economic development at Georgia Power; Guanming Fang, an attorney leading the China initiative at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC and Jia Yan, a partner in the corporate practice at Paul Hastings LLP's Shanghai office. 

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