Published 4:10 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2026 By Chris Clark, President & CEO, Georgia Chamber of Commerce There is a tendency to talk about Georgia’s success as though it simply happened. It didn’t. Someone built the Georgia we love, generations who invested in roads and schools and ports, recruited factories to courthouse-square towns, opened businesses, and cared for land they hoped to hand down to their children. We inherited the results, and now it is our turn to pay it forward. Nowhere does that responsibility matter more than in rural Georgia, because the next real measure of this state’s success will not be how much prosperity we concentrate in one corner of it. It will be whether Georgians in every community can build a good life, grow a business, and raise a family close to home. Gov. Brian Kemp understood that, and he made rural prosperity a defining piece of Georgia’s economic strategy rather than an afterthought to it. In fiscal year 2026, three-quarters of the state’s economic development projects landed outside Metro Atlanta, and since the program launched in fiscal year 2025, Georgia has put $28 million into the Rural Site Development Initiative, helping communities get sites ready before an employer ever comes looking. Speaker Jon Burns, members of the General Assembly, and economic developers in every region have been partners in that work, and together they have shown what the Georgia Way looks like when corporate citizenship meets good government. That…
*This content (including text, artwork, graphics, photography, and video) was provided by the third party(ies) as referenced above. Any rights or other content questions or inquiries should be directed to such third-party provider(s).
