More than 3,000 companies representing 50 countries call Georgia home, and employ more than 170,000 Georgians. Leading countries for investment in Georgia are Japan, Korea, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Fourteen Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in Georgia, including The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, United Parcel Service (UPS), Delta Air Lines, AFLAC, Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, AGCO and Newell Rubbermaid.

Georgia continues to grow as an international crossroads, attracting more and more people and businesses for its quality of life and progressive business environment. Today, 69 nations are represented in the state by consulates, trade offices and binational chambers of commerce.

To help businesses in Georgia compete, the state identified strategic industries for Georgia that are fully supported by state resources and ripe for growth opportunities. Industry clusters including Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace, Agribusiness, Energy, Life Sciences and Logistics are targeted sectors for Georgia.

With 35 colleges and universities, the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents set a strategic planning goal for 25 percent of every graduating class to have an overseas academic experience. Study abroad participation has grown 72 percent since 2000, and more than 18,000 students from other countries study in Georgia, contributing more than $250 million to the state’s economy.

Georgia’s business and tourism assets make the state a destination for business and leisure travelers alike, bringing in $21 billion in direct travel expenditures in 2010, an 8.3 percent increase in expenditures over 2009. Of those expenditures, $2.1 billion was from international visitors, a 15 percent increase over 2009, and ranking the state 12th in international inbound travel. With the fourth-largest convention center
in the United States, Atlanta is an epicenter for business travelers from around the country and the world.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest passenger airport for 13 consecutive years, served nearly 90 million passengers in 2010, and flew to more than 80 international destinations in 50 countries. Direct flights from the airport link Atlanta with 153 cities in the nation, putting 80 percent of the U.S. population within a two-hour flight.

The Port of Savannah is the second-largest port in container volume on the U.S. East Coast behind the Port of New York and New Jersey, and is the fourth largest in the United States. It has been the fastest growing over the past ten years. Savannah’s Garden City Terminal is the largest single-container terminal in the country. The port serves all major ocean carriers operating in the United States and has more than 100 trucking companies that serve the port and its clients. Georgia also has the largest rail network in the southeastern United States.

Georgia has 10 international offices in: the Americas (Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Chile); Europe/Middle East (European headquarters in Germany and representation offices in the United Kingdom and Israel); and Asia (Japan, Korea and China). The Georgia Department of Agriculture also has an international trade office for Europe based in Belgium.