About 10 top Macon-Bibb officials are heading to Tokyo in October to try to recruit a new industry and visit Macon’s sister city in Japan.
Kevin Brown, attorney for the Macon-Bibb Industrial Development Authority (IDA), confirmed after an open records request from the Reporter that planning for the trip is well under way.
Brown said that IDA director Stephen Adams, Mayor Lester Miller, Miller’s wife, county manager Keith Moffett, Chamber of Commerce CEO Jessica Walden and other unnamed officials are planning to make the trip. Brown said they would need at least 10 to go to earn a group rate.
“It’s not gonna be cheap,” said Brown. “Plane tickets are outrageous.”
Brown said the round trip airfare to Japan runs about $4,000 per person, and as much as $16,000 if it’s first class for the 14-hour flight to Tokyo.
Brown said that they’re taking the trip because Macon-Bibb is in the running to land a new industry from Japan. Brown said Macon officials are working with the prospect planning events in Japan. He said Asian culture is particular about propriety and emphasizes meeting in person to discuss a potential business deal. Brown said that Bibb officials decided to add a visit to Macon’s sister city Kurobe, which like Macon has a YKK plant owned by the Japanese zipper manufacturer.
“It’s a very wide-ranging trip,” said Brown, who said it would take about 7 days, and 2 of those days would be just for travel to and from Japan.
Brown said they hope to have a commitment from the prospect to locate in Macon not long after their visit, perhaps in November, but added that Bibb is competing against other communities for the plant.
Brown said he does not think the IDA has taken such an group trip overseas since the 1980s, but said Macon’s long-time economic developer and chamber executive Pat Topping used to take trips to Germany sometimes.
Brown said he was being forthcoming with information hoping the Reporter would drop its open records request for all emails that included “Tokyo” in them because that would be time-consuming to track down.
AloJapan.com