Belgium’s consul general in the Southeast U.S. wants to further strengthen ties between his country and the region by making Atlanta a destination for the world’s first solar-powered plane when it attempts to fly around the world in 2014.

Lausanne, Switzerland-based Solar Impulse SA is developing the plane with 23 sponsor companies and organizations from across Europe, particularly in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

Benoit Standaert, who represents Belgium in 10 Southeast states, told GlobalAtlanta that Georgia’s strong position in the aerospace industry makes it a natural destination and that the state’s growing renewable energy sector would benefit from seeing a working example of this technology.

“There are many aspects where we could learn one from the other for the betterment of Belgium and Georgia,” Mr. Standaert said. “Georgia is a sunny state, so why don’t we take advantage of the air connection and the solar connection?”

The plane, which currently holds one pilot, made a 26-hour flight within Switzerland in July 2010, averaging only about 46 miles per hour.

Solar Impulse began construction on a model capable of longer flights this year and plans to add another pilot before attempting the world tour.

Georgia already has ties to some of the organizations involved with the project.

Major sponsors include Brussels-based chemical company Solvay SA. Its U.S. subsidiary, Solvay Advanced Polymers LLC, is headquartered in Alpharetta and has an office in Augusta.

Another significant backer Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG has three locations in Atlanta.

Mr. Standaert said bringing the plane to Georgia would strengthen ties that have developed over decades, beginning with Belgian involvement in the carpet and textile industries centered in Dalton.

“Dalton was the starting-point for the first relationship between Belgium and Georgia, but we did not stop there,” he said. “The relationship between Belgium and Georgia developed along the same lines as Georgia itself developed and diversified its industry.”

He credited Anne Cox Chambers, director of Sandy Springs-based media conglomerate Cox Enterprises who served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium under President Carter, with saying that Belgium has 10 provinces and Georgia is the 11th.

That relationship has survived setbacks. The first international carrier to establish itself in Atlanta, Zaventem, Belgium-based Sabena Airlines, went bankrupt in 2001 but Delta Air Lines Inc. has since launched a daily Atlanta-Brussels flight.

Georgia’s textile industry took a hit in October when carpet manufacturer Beaulieu of America Inc., a subsidiary of Belgium’s Beaulieu International Group, announced it is closing its Dalton plant by the end of this year, a loss of 170 jobs. Dalton is a center for carpet manufacturing, which has experienced severe setbacks with the collapse of the housing industry.

There are still major Belgian textile companies investing in Dalton, however.  IVC US Inc., a subsidiary of Avelgem, Belgium-based IVC Group, opened a $70 million vinyl flooring plant there this year, and plans to employ a total of 150 people by 2012.

Even after Beaulieu’s exit, there are about 40 Belgian companies creating more than 5,200 jobs in the state, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Georgia-Belgium ties are not confined to business. Mr. Standaert noted that Atlanta-based human rights organization the Carter Center is working to prevent disease and promote democracy in central Africa, where Belgium had a colonial presence until the 1960s.

President Carter traveled to Brussels in October, where Prime Minister Yves Leterme presented him with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown, the highest honor a non-Belgian can receive from the state.

Mr. Standaert was serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2006 when the Carter Center oversaw the country’s first open presidential elections.

He moved to Atlanta in 2008 and was promoted from consul to consul general last year. Mr. Standaert’s jurisdiction includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

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