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Monday, August 18, 2008
Forum shows how international Atlanta is
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Heads of state, business and academic leaders as well as government dignataries are in Atlanta for the second annual Americas Competitiveness Forum today and tomorrow.
At the opening session, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez welcomed about 1,000 people who had come to Atlanta from “Canada to the Southern most tip of our hemisphere.”
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin told the group: “What is good for one of us is good for all of us.”
And then the conference took on an international flavor.
The panel of media professionals all spoke to the group in Spanish.
(The moderator, CNN Espanol anchor Alberto Padillo did open with a funny comment in English. “Sec. Gutierrez first tried to get Lou Dobbs, but he wasn’t available. For those of you who don’t know Lou Dobbs, I really don’t recommend him.” Dobbs often uses his pulpit on CNN to rail against illegal immigration).
After the media panel, Gutierrez introduced the three heads of state who were in Atlanta for the conference: Alvaro Colom Caballeros, president of Guatemala; Elias Antonio Saca Gonzalez, president of El Salvador; and Alvaro Uribe Velez, president of Colombia.
“We have presidents of three countries today, three democratically-elected leaders, discussing what they are doing and will be doing to increase the competitiveness in their region,” Gutierrez said.
From that point on, the three presidents spoke to the audience in Spanish. Attendees were given headsets to hear the simultaneous translation of their presentations.
Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, said that having the three presidents come to the city “heightens the caliber of the conference.” He said he was impressed with how candid the presidents were in “addressing issues at the core of challenges to competitiviness such as bringing down corruption.”
The forum will be held in Santiago, Chile in 2009, but it will be back in Atlanta in 2010. “This was a huge decision,” Williams said, adding that the forum is a “great networking opportunity” and demonstrates “how trade needs to be front and center in our minds.”
Again, forums like these show how we are emerging as an international city.
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