Industrialists were given a star’s welcome, Thursday morning, at the 63rd annual Red Carpet Tour at Augusta National.
The Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce organized the affair, the latest stop of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s yearly four-day excursion giving business leaders a survey of the state.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp joined a host of local dignitaries, including Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson, Sheriff Gino Brantley and Columbia County Board of Commissioners Chairman Doug Duncan, in greeting the tourists as they arrived on two buses at the red carpet tent, along Magnolia Drive.
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The tour aims to facilitate networking between cities in the state and industries, hopefully leading to further economic development, says Georgia Deptartment of Economic Development (GDEcD) Commissioner Pat Wilson.
“This is 63 years that we’ve been doing this with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the state in a partnership to bring companies, consultants from all over the world to come in and experience Georgia hospitality,” Wilson said. “There really is no better place to do it than Augusta.”
Area Development Magazine has named Georgia the No. 1 state for doing business for 11 years in a row, and the international draw of the Masters Tournament makes Augusta a formidable stop on the tour, Wilson also noted. Last year saw the opening of the Aurubis Richmond plant and the groundbreaking of the Syensqo plant, both hubs for the production of components for electrical vehicles, the manufacture of which has been a growing industry in the state.
Wilson also links “tens of billions of dollars” and “tens of thousands of jobs” in Georgia directly to the Red Carpet Tour.
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“And the impact isn’t just in Augusta, it is literally all over the state,” he said, highlighting that projects in Bainbridge, Thomasville and Ringo, Ga. resulted from their being Red Carpet Tour stops. “A lot of economic development comes down to relationships, and it comes down to a feel they feel wanted. And they come to Augusta, see everybody’s lined up… Democrats, Republicans, we’re all Georgians to begin with, they’re lined up clapping for all these companies that are coming in. They feel like they are wanted here.”
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
