Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is promoting a conference Oct. 19-20 that will encourage business and investment by bringing representatives from the city’s 18 Sister Cities to discuss best practices on a variety of urban issues.

“We want to step up our use of Sister City relationships to enhance business and investment from across the world,” said Ms. Franklin to some 100 business representatives and members of the Sister City commissions at the World Trade Center Atlanta last week.

 “Atlanta is a growing economy, and we’d like to know more about the development of our Sister Cities and provide linkages for businesses,” Ms. Franklin said. “To preserve and enhance current relationships, in the next three years a high-ranking official from the city of Atlanta, or myself, will visit every Sister City that has not yet been visited,” she added.

Traditionally, the Sister City relationships have been used to promote cultural, academic and technical exchanges.  Two years ago, the city created a five-year initiative to explore and develop business partnerships and pursue investment opportunities with its Sister Cities.

The plan is to culminate at the conference, which is sponsored by the mayor’s office, the World Trade Center, Georgia Power Co., the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and CIFAL Atlanta, a United Nations program that trains municipal governments in the Western Hemisphere.

Delegations at the conference will share best practices and case studies on topics including urban regeneration, innovation, transportation, tourism development and public-private partnerships.

Ms. Franklin said she hopes representatives from all 18 Sister Cities will attend. Her goals for the conference also include developing five to 20 top initiatives for the partnerships, creating a long-term agenda and committing to an annual meeting, she said.

Attendees demonstrated their support for the initiative and offered suggestions about matchmaking foreign businesses with local businesses during the question and answer session that followed the mayor’s presentation.  

For more information about the conference, contact Sebastian Mathews at (404) 962-4841 or the mayor’s office at (404) 330-6000.

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