Worldwide Editing helps produce global investment plan

The Metro Atlanta Chamber (MAC) has released a plan that is designed to position the 29-county region as one of the world’s most globally engaged, economically robust, and desirable destinations for foreign direct investment. The plan, the Metro Atlanta Foreign Direct Investment Plan, outlines specific steps businesses and civic and government leaders can take to leverage foreign direct investment to grow global engagement, according to a MAC press release announcing the plan. Worldwide Editing worked closely with officials in MAC’s Global Commerce Council throughout the first quarter to assist in writing the plan.

MAC produced the plan through the region’s participation in the Global Cities Initiative (GCI), a joint project of the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase. GCI is designed to help a group of selected U.S. metro areas advance and grow their regional economies by strengthening international connections and competitiveness on key economic indicators. Atlanta was one of the first metros to join GCI. All of the participating metros were chosen through a competitive process.

The FDI plan is in effect the second phase of the GCI effort to help participating metros strengthen their international connections and competitiveness. While FDI focused on creating and executing regional investment strategies, the first phase targeted trade. That phase produced the Metro Export Plan (MEP), which Worldwide Editing also helped the Metro Atlanta Chamber write. The MEP won a prestigious award from the Georgia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

Being globally competitive is important to U.S. metros because more than 85 percent of global growth through 2019 is projected to occur outside the United States. Global engagement is a critical necessity if cities want to catalyze both their economies and their workforce. Global companies – those that export and receive foreign direct investment – pay higher average wages, contribute more to regional R&D efforts, and increase productivity of domestic markets through the infusion of new technologies and practices.

A Who’s Who of metro Atlanta’s key public and private stakeholders attended the press conference announcing the release of the plan. They included Atlanta Mayor Kasim (photo above); Anne Kaiser, Vice President of Community and Economic Development, Georgia Power; Hala Moddelmog, President and CEO, Metro Atlanta Chamber; David Balos, Region Manager of Chase Commercial Banking in Georgia; and Nick Masino, Senior Vice President, Economic Development and Partnership Gwinnett, Gwinnett Chamber.