Just before some of its members jet off for their latest international trade mission to Africa, the Atlanta Black Chambers has named point people for its outreach to strategic countries.
The chamber’s Global Opportunities Committee has appointed what it calls Regional Leads to coordinate efforts to boost trade and investment links with nations in Africa or countries and regions with prominent African diaspora populations, from Colombia and the Caribbean and Panama to the South Pacific. (See a full list below)
These leads will be tasked with brainstorming new ideas for engagement and developing the chamber’s connections in each locale, sometimes in advance of an in-person trip like the mission the chamber is soon undertaking to South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe in early March.
The Global Opportunities Committee is the ABC’s main node of international outreach as Atlanta continues to garner global interest as the “mecca for Black excellence,” the chamber said in a news release.
Indeed, the city’s civil rights heritage, air links to the continent and significant African diaspora populations have made it a common stop for African diplomats seeking to drum up interest in their economies. Global Atlanta last year hosted forums with envoys from Zambia and South Africa, and Atlanta hosted visits from the ambassadors of Zimbabwe, Angola and many other African nations. Ethiopian Airlines last year started a nonstop flight from Atlanta to Addis Ababa, with Mayor Andre Dickens traveling on the inaugural.
In partnership with the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, the Global Opportunities Committee last August led a trade mission taking 20 Black-owned businesses from Atlanta to Cali, Colombia, in partnership with Colombian Ambassador Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia, who recently was appointed as acting foreign minister for the country.
Since then, it has ramped up efforts to conduct virtual match-making meetings…
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