Home from a five-day trip to Cuba, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he’s even more confident the city has significant future trade opportunities with the island country.
With local expertise in airport management, logistics, food exports, information technology and tourism, Atlanta is well-poised to be among the three most important domestic partners with Cuba, on par with Miami and the New York area, Reed said.
That’s the message he plans to take to Atlanta’s business community in coming months. Though it’s still early in the process, he said he’ll encourage local business leaders to visit Cuba themselves.
“I’d definitely say there is an enormous opportunity that is worthy of review,” said Reed, waiting to board his flight back home Wednesday from Havana’s José Martí International Airport.
“My vision is just to be here first,” Reed continued. “Clearly no significant investment is going to be allowed until the United States changes its policy regarding the embargo, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be here developing key relationships.”
Reed traveled to Cuba this week with a contingent of business and academic leaders with the World Affairs Council of Atlanta. While there, they engaged in high-level sociopolitical and economic debates with Cuban counterparts. They walked through impoverished Havana communities and took in the sights of a city in need of repair. They met with local musicians, economists, historians and small businessmen whose realities are worlds away from their own. They saw the stark realities of a Communist country grappling with change.
Though a few on the trip were discouraged by the inherent challenges in conducting business there anytime soon, the mayor said he’s willing to play the long-game.
“This [opportunity] is unique because of the broad range of challenges that doing business with Cuba represents,” said Reed. “I have a saying that the juice is worth the squeeze. I think the juice can be worth the squeeze, but there are some things that have to happen in order for it to work.”
It was undoubtedly a special time to be in Cuba, many said, a trip accented by President Barack Obama’s announcement on Wednesday to reopen the U.S. Embassy there. Just two days earlier, the Georgia contingent visited the home of U.S. Ambassador Jeff DeLaurentis, the principal officer of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba that will now become the embassy.
At a bustling smoke-filled restaurant in downtown Havana on Tuesday, the group cheered as word of the embassy re-openings spread. Many couldn’t resist joking that Reed could tell the world he played a crucial role in closing those negotiations between the countries.
Inside Cuban culture
Carol Orndorff, a Decatur woman who joined the group to Cuba this week, said she sees another major requirement for the two countries: mutual understanding.
Orndorff, a leadership and organizational development consultant, says she believes that American companies must be willing to step outside of their worldviews if they hope to succeed in the Communist country.
“This is really going to require people being willing to really get into each other’s worlds, and really hear what it’s like,” Orndorff said. “I think the Americans that are going to be successful are going to be the ones that are willing to do their business inside the [Cuban] culture.”
Dan Easton, a Realtor from North Georgia, agreed that Americans must be willing to listen and learn from Cuban counterparts if a future trade relationship is to be forged.
He came to Cuba out of curiosity, and to explore potential real estate opportunities, he said. But after seeing the country firsthand, he believes significant investment, for Americans, is still far off.
”I think there is going to be opportunity, but I think it’s way down the pike,” he said. “Nobody is going to feel comfortable investing here. It’s too unstable still.”
Jacqueline Jones Royster, Dean of Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, said she was encouraged by the dialogue that began this week. Cuba is “filled with potential,” she said, especially with opportunities for Atlanta’s academic institutions to partner with Cuban universities to study the country’s architectural, engineering, infrastructure and policy analysis needs.
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