As U.S. firms rethink their global supply chains in the wake of COVID-19, using Colombia as a production base could be part of an effort to “make the Americas great again,” the country’s ambassador told Global Atlanta. Francisco Santos Calderón said the world has gone from a “just-in-time economy to a just-in-case economy,” forcing multinationals […]
Economic Development
Commentary: Saving DACA Permanently Means Setting Georgia Up for Recovery
Editor’s note: This post by Charles Kuck is published as part of Kuck Baxter’s annual sponsorship of Global Atlanta and was provided to the publication by New American Economy, which advocates for immigration policies that will drive economic growth. As if Georgia didn’t have enough to worry about with coronavirus recovery, tens of thousands of […]
Hartsfield-Jackson GM: International Air Traffic Will Be Slowest to Recover
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s January and February numbers spurred projections for another record year of traffic, with signs pointing to 113 million passengers by the end of 2020. Then came the coronavirus pandemic — labeled as such by the World Health Organization March 11 — which brought about a precipitous decline in air traffic as governments around […]
Chinese Flooring Momentum Continues With Fourth Vinyl Tile Investment
Yet another Chinese luxury vinyl tile producer is setting up shop in northwest Georgia, joining a rush of producers looking to build local factories during a time of uncertainty around flooring tariffs. Creative Flooring Solutions, or CFL, was started by Europeans in Shanghai in 2004, and now calls claims to be the largest exporter of […]
Aerotropolis Atlanta Distributes 2,000 Medical Masks Donated by Beijing Partner
Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance, the economic development collaborative helping the region around Hartsfield-Jackson capitalize on its growth, is now sharing more than best practices with its partners in Beijing. During the pandemic, the organization received some 2,000 masks donated from the Beijing New Aerotropolis Holding company, which have been distributed to cities around the Atlanta airport […]
German Chamber: Two-Thirds of Firms Avert COVID-19 Layoffs
About two thirds of German-American Chamber of Commerce members in the South have averted laying off or furloughing employees throughout the pandemic, but many are facing a demand crunch as the economy stalls. During the last two weeks of May, the chamber surveyed 101 members and non-members. About half of them work for foreign-owned subsidiaries, […]
Metro Atlanta Chamber Promotes CEO From Within
Katie Kirkpatrick has been tapped to succeed Hala Moddelmog as president and CEO at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Ms. Kirkpatrick, the chamber’s longtime chief policy officer, will begin in the new role June 15, building on her work advocating to shore up the region’s business environment. Her appointment comes as the chamber is helping galvanize […]
Survey: Japanese Firms Retain Workers, Optimism Even as Sales, Production Shrink
Most Japanese companies operating in the U.S. have had to cut production as sales have fallen amid the pandemic; still, a large majority are retaining their workers or offering options that could allow them to quickly come back to work once things recover. That’s the finding of the Japan External Trade Organization’s most recent “Quick […]
Chinese Airlines Now Allowed Two Flights Per Week Into U.S.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has walked back a proposed ban on all Chinese airlines flying into the U.S., now saying the country will be immediately allowed with a total of two round-trip flights here per week. The relaxation from a full ban came after the Civil Aviation Authority of China revised a policy the DOT […]
Georgia’s International Team Sees Personnel Shifts
International investors and diplomats who engage with Georgia won’t have to learn new faces, but they’ll soon see them in new places as the state reorients its team focused on reaching out to the world. The shift includes assigning investment project managers that once focused on source markets — like Japan, Germany or Korea — […]
