As part of a competitive bidding process that occurs every five years, the state of Georgia is interviewing candidates in Mexico and Chile who want to be the state’s international representatives promoting trade, investment and tourism.
Kathe Falls, director of international trade for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, will travel to Mexico on Monday and Chile over the next few weeks to interview candidates for the positions, she told GlobalAtlanta Thursday.
The current representatives in those countries are allowed to compete for another five-year contract, she said, but are not automatically renewed. Candidates must present detailed proposals that include previous work experience, performance measures and the amount of money they will charge to represent the state.
In addition to Mexico and Chile, Georgia has representatives in South Korea, Japan, China, Germany, Israel, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.
All but two of those are contract employees, with representatives in Japan and Germany the only full-time state employees.
Most of the contract employees are paid less than $100,000 per year, Ms. Falls said. Out of that sum, the representatives must provide their own office and travel expenses.
Representatives usually have other clients, although Georgia’s new representative in Canada, Gail Morris, will represent Georgia exclusively, Ms. Falls said.
Georgia also named Jose Madeira as the new representative in Brazil and Dov Levanon and Ronen Kenan as the primary representatives in Israel, based out of Tel Aviv. The previous Israeli representative was based in Jerusalem.