Gov. Nathan Deal is headed overseas again, visiting two countries on his third trip to Europe since taking office in January 2011.
Mr. Deal and Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Chris Cummiskey, along with other officials, are traveling on a business development mission to Switzerland and the Netherlands through July 27.
In Switzerland, they will be accompanied by Claudio Leoncavallo, the Swiss consul general for the Southeast U.S. in Atlanta. They are to visit the cities of Zurich, Basel and Bern in Switzerland and Amsterdam, the Dutch capital.
Much of the visit will entail meeting with existing investors in Georgia, including the Swiss firms Landis+Gyr, Novartis and Habasit, as well as Dutch companies like Vanderlande Industries, TenCate and Philips Electronics.
But the delegation will also leverage longstanding relationships in an attempt to attract new business.
Mr. Deal will attend a dinner organized by Brugg Cables, a subsidiary of the Suhner Group, which was the first Swiss investor in Georgia, having operated a plant in Rome since 1976.
The governor will also meet with the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, Donald Beyer, who will host a business dinner for the delegation in Bern, the Swiss capital.
More than 180 Swiss companies operate in Georgia employing 11,700 people, while 250 Dutch companies in the state provide 27,900 jobs on $2.5 billion in investment.
The visit is the governor’s third international trip this year. He visited Turkey in June and Canada in July. His first European trip last year included stops in the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. Last October, he headed to China.
This week’s trip comes on the heels of Switzerland-based Interroll Group‘s July 20 announcement that it would open a $10 million plant making conveyor system components in Paulding County.
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