The Georgia Institute of Technology’s Lorraine, France, campus is to serve as a base for the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s efforts to recruit French technology companies to set up operations in Georgia.
Georgia Tech Lorraine will house an office with university employees that will function like one of Georgia’s international investment offices by recruiting French companies and identifying mutual investment opportunities.
Technological innovation is to be the focus of the relationship, with research and development spawned from the university expected to lead to increased economic development and technology transfer between the regions, according to Hans Püttgen, president of Georgia Tech Lorraine.
ADIELOR, the Lorraine economic development agency, will work with Georgia Tech’s campuses, its Office of Economic Development and Technology Ventures in Atlanta and the state’s department to identify technology development opportunities.
The new Lorraine office represents a “wonderful partnership that fits well in Georgia’s global economic strategy” of increasing high tech investment in Georgia, according to Craig Lesser, the department’s commissioner.
Mr. Lesser traveled last week to the Lorraine campus in the region’s capital of Metz to meet with Jean-Marie Rausch, mayor of Metz and principal instigator of the proposed partnership.
President of the Lorraine Region, Sen. Jean-Pierre Masseret, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will formalize the agreement in the fall when Mr. Masseret is scheduled to visit Georgia along with a delegation from Lorraine’s Regional Council.
Georgia and the Lorraine Region have been sister states since 1988, and Georgia Tech Lorraine has been located in Metz since 1990. The graduate school offers Master’s of Science degrees in computer science, electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering with classes taught in English.
The Lorraine Region is located in northeast France, sharing borders with Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg. For more information, visit www.cr-lorraine.fr. For more information about Georgia Tech Lorraine, visit www.georgiatech-metz.fr.
Contact Kristin Callaway at the Georgia Department of Economic Development at (404) 962-4075 for more information about the state’s new initiative. Contact Bertrand Comet-Barthe at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (part of the Office of Economic Development and Technology Ventures commissioned by the state to cultivate technology transfer and support young high tech companies) at (404) 920-2047 or bcb@atdc.org.