Governor Perdue to Lead Mission to Uruguay, Argentina

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue will lead a delegation of Georgia’s economic development officials next week to explore trade and tourism opportunities in Uruguay and Argentina. The Governor will participate in a full schedule of meetings and in-country visits beginning with the delegation’s arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina on June 20, with the mission concluding June 23.

“This trade mission to Argentina and Uruguay will help us reconnect with important trading partners in South America,” said Governor Perdue. “These are relationships we first developed when building Atlanta’s bid to host the Western Hemisphere’s free trade headquarters. While that opportunity never materialized, our efforts have continued to shape Georgia’s reputation as a global business leader.”

The Governor will be joined by representatives of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. In addition to Buenos Aires, the delegation will participate in a slate of business meetings in Cordoba while in Argentina. Governor Perdue will meet with senior government officials, including the governors of Buenos Aires and Cordoba, chamber of commerce executives, heads of Georgia-based companies in the region and will give remarks to local business leaders during a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce Argentina.

The delegation will also meet with Vilma Martinez, Ambassador of the United States to Argentina, along with representatives from the country’s travel and tourism industry to promote Georgia’s tourism strengths to the country’s leading tour operators. In the next five years, visitation from Argentina to the United States is expected to grow by 55 percent.

In Uruguay, the Governor will meet with prominent members of the country’s business community and political leadership, encouraging attendance for the 2010 Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF) to be hosted in Atlanta in November. The ACF provides an opportunity for governments, the business community, and representatives from academia and non-governmental organizations to discuss strategies and tactics to improve competitiveness and economic prosperity in the Americas.

The Governor last visited Argentina in 2004 when the state and the city of Atlanta pursued its candidacy as the headquarters location for the Secretariat of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. The intent of this mission will be to extend the ties created since that time, and explore new opportunities for global commerce and tourism.

Georgia’s ties to Argentina and Uruguay are also evident through trade relationships that exist between the state and both countries. Georgia is the sixth-largest exporter to Uruguay among all U.S. states, and ranks tenth among states that import products the country. In 2009, Georgia’s exports to Argentina totaled more than $156 million, ranking the state as the seventh-largest exporter to that country nationwide.

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