Representatives of Georgia’s 10 foreign offices visited the state Oct. 10-15, including recently appointed directors from Brazil, Canada, Israel and Mexico.
Georgia also has offices in Santiago, Chile; Beijing; Munich, Germany, with responsibilities for continental Europe; Tokyo; Seoul, Korea; Mexico City and Beechingstoke, England, with responsibilities for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Kathe Falls, director of international trade and the Georgia Department of Economic Development, told GlobalAtlanta that the representatives play an important role in attracting foreign investment.
“International economic development is incredibly important to us,” she said during a filmed interview. “A testimony to that is that we have nearly 3,000 international companies in our state.”
She also pointed to the 125 consulates, honorary consuls, trade commissions and bi-national chambers of commerce located in Georgia.
The representative offices promote foreign direct investment in Georgia as well as tourism, film, music and digital entertainment opportunities in the state.
They also provide Georgia exporters with a variety of services including market assessments, industry contacts, customized in-country appointments and due diligence reports.
Besides Ms. Falls, the representatives met with Heidi Green, the department commissioner, and Pat Wilson, deputy commissioner.
In addition, they attended meetings with Greg Torre, division director, marketing and communications; Carla Plouin, director of account management; Joseph Walker, director, business development, tourism division, and Mark Lytle, director, international investment.
During the week, they visited the passenger and cargo facilities of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, including the protocol and immigration offices.
The also visited the Georgia Ports Authority in Savannah, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, the Georgia Medical Center Authority in Augusta and Madison.
Their tour included Georgia-based operations of Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. in Savannah and Kia Motors in West Point, as well as tourist attractions such as The World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium.
The managing directors on the tour were Gail Morris, Canada; Fernando Hanhausen, Mexico; Jose Madeira, Brazil; Brian Wilson, Chile; Mike Harling, U.K. and Ireland and Yumiko Nakazono, Japan;
Niles Gerber, trade manager, and Franz Pastorius, marketing manager from the Europe office; Ronen Kenan, trade representative, Israel; Michael Su, commercial representative, China and Hee-jung Shin, project manager, Korea were the other participants on the tour.
To learn more about the representatives and their responsibilities call the Georgia economic development department at (404) 962-4036 or send an email to trade@georgia.org.
For a listing of the department’s trade-related activities, go to www.georgia.org/trade.
The Pendleton Group is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Economic Development Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Economic Development newsletters.