Chris Clark monitors more gauges than a jet pilot in flight, and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce CEO acknowledges all systems are go in regard to the state’s business climate.
“We at the chamber are all about moving the needle, and we watch several needles,” Clark told several hundred Savannah business leaders Monday during the downtown Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon at the Hilton DeSoto. “We see plenty of good news.”
Georgia is seeing an uptick in population (net gain of 3 million projected over the next decade), investment (up 32 percent this year) and job growth (up 29 percent this year), Clark said.
Citing comments made by University of Georgia business school dean Robert Sumichrast, Clark credited Gov. Nathan Deal’s Georgia Competitiveness Initiative, a business-friendly reform package launched in 2011, for Georgia’s improvement.
The Georgia General Assembly has passed approximately 15 bills tied to the Competitiveness Initiative over the last two years, helping Georgia develop a “more marquee name to go out and recruit companies to the state.”
“Folks on both sides of the aisle are focused on business and are working together on economic development issues,” said Clark, who noted 97 percent of Georgia legislators received “passing grades” for being business friendly in 2013, up more than 30 percent from three years ago.
Clark outlined several of the successful legislative measures during Monday’s speech, which was part of the Georgia Chamber’s annual statewide “regional power lunch” tour. He also shared several of the chamber’s priorities going forward.
The chamber will continue to focus on the workforce and education needles. Close to $17.5 billion is spent annually on education in Georgia yet the state ranks 45th in high school graduation rate and 36th in four-year college completion.
The dollars must be “used better,” Clark said, and the chamber has helped write new curriculum for 17 career paths, with more on the way.
He encouraged the business community to become more engaged with schools.
“It is easy to complain about the quality of folks we are interviewing,” Clark said. “Having you engage as a business community is vital.”
The chamber is also pushing for legal reform, specifically in regard to tort lawsuits, and demanding business support for hospitals and awareness about the impact of the Affordable Care Act.
Fifteen rural Georgia hospitals closed in the last year, according to Clark, and another two dozen are currently in danger. A weakened health care system would be a blow to Georgia’s ability to attract new businesses.
Clark is in his third year as the leader of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Bill Hubbard, leader of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, hailed Clark for the “style and grace with which he handles representing the business community” in introducing him during Monday’s event.