On the afternoon that the very first jetliner backed away from Atlanta’s new $1.4 billion international terminal and took flight toward Japan, yet another cargo vessel was freed from its moorings and chugged down the Savannah River toward the high seas.
The departure of Delta Air Lines’ Flight 295 on a 6,900-mile journey and the setting sail of the vessel Umm Slal, a 1,000-foot-long liquefied natural gas tanker, while outwardly unrelated, nevertheless share a common theme — that Atlanta, and Georgia, have traveled a long way toward living up to global ambitions that once seemed well beyond a stretch goal.
We’re much better off as a result of that audacity and hard work. All Georgians have benefited as we’ve muscled further into the currents of a world economy that increasingly recognizes fewer borders.
That’s both a feel-good moment and an authentic reality for a metro area and state that have taken more than their share of licks during a stiff recession whose aftereffects have yet to fully end. Atlanta and Georgia are still enduring slow growth, high (though, thankfully, falling) unemployment and a grist mill of property foreclosures that continues to grind on.
Looking backward across that battered economic landscape gives us all the more reason to look ahead — toward better days and the economic engines that will get us there.
By virtue of geography, investment and foresight among other things, international trade will be a powerful driver on our trip toward recovery. That’s a good position in which to be as willing nations pursue the trade of goods and services across borders and oceans.
And it’s fitting for a metro area that has managed to make the world’s A-list of cities. We’re an Olympics city. Our region and state are known around the planet. That’s a point of civic pride, as it should be. More importantly, it’s a competitive economic advantage that we can bank on — literally.
That’s what makes especially encouraging events such as last week’s opening of the 1.2 million-square-foot Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Yes, it’s opening during a time when world travel is not what it once was. Yet, it’s a critical piece of infrastructure that’s now in place and ready for better times that will surely come. The global village is not going away, and Georgia last week threw open an international front door for all the world to see — and use.
That’s in the style of the old, bold Atlanta region that painted itself onto the world’s map in brash ways. Those moves paid off in jobs, growth and capital investment by the globe’s leading companies and minds.
While world travelers are passing through the new Concourse F at the world’s busiest airport, Georgia’s making other quieter, yet powerfully productive moves to enhance its commercial stature around the world. These efforts must continue.
The push to deepen the Port of Savannah has drawn statewide support and even the backing, at some political risk, of a faithful few South Carolina leaders. A report released last week put the direct economic impact of Georgia’s ports at $39.3 billion.
Most everyone knows the Savannah River is pretty busy channeling cargo up and down its waters, but it’s noteworthy that a bit more than half of the port’s traffic consists of exports. That means Georgia businesses, and those in other states, are shipping goods around the globe. Those are especially attractive trade flows as far as our state is concerned.
The Georgia Competitiveness Initiative’s final report outlines strategies to “grow Georgia’s brand globally and strategically target international markets for growth.” Part of making that happen, the report notes, is raising awareness of existing state programs to help companies grow through international sales. The state should continue pushing to make that happen as well as the other economic development strategies outlined therein — things such as targeting foreign investment in our state and identifying global partnership opportunities.
All these things reflect an application and broadening of the Atlanta Way that’s combined efforts by the public and private sectors to foster a world-class metroplex.
We can, and must, continue to build on these current and past successes. They’re paying off.
As a result, the world’s coming to us. And that’s to our global, and local, benefit.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board
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