Gov. Kemp meets with CEOs to talk Georgia’s economic opportunities during Europe trip

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp is talking about Georgia’s economy after returning from a ten-day trip to Europe that included meetings with several corporate CEOs.

Kemp met not only with the prime minister of the nation of Georgia but with corporate CEOs in France, particularly at the Paris Air Show.

“We spent two days just meeting with the other existing companies that are already doing business in the state and talked to them, you know, about expansion and other things,” Kemp said. “So I’m very optimistic about the trip.”

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Kemp said that while other states ran information booths or had representatives meet with corporations, Georgia’s economic development team brought him and that opened the doors for direct talks with CEOs, even if he won’t be in office when that relationship bears fruit.

“So in some ways, we may be paying this forward for whoever is governor next,” Kemp said.

The Republican Kemp is planting his flag firmly in Georgia’s future economy as his potential political rival, Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, is trying to stake that ground as his own, too.

Ossoff announced a $1.3 billion infrastructure law investment in rural broadband expansion across Georgia.

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“We are now delivering an unprecedented investment in broadband access for families and businesses across the state of Georgia,” Ossoff said.

Meanwhile, Kemp says his goal is to continue to get existing businesses to expand and attract new businesses to Georgia, even if he can’t quite talk about it yet.

“Got a couple of other things that we’re working on we can’t talk about, so I felt really good about us being there and seeing how that’s going to impact Georgia in the future,” Kemps said.

One of the people Kemp met with was the CEO of Raytheon.

Its subsidiary, Pratt and Whitney just announced a $200 million investment and 400 new jobs in Columbus.

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