The Georgia Chamber Foundation has published its annual report of where the state stands and what to anticipate in the future.
Called the 2025 Economic Competitiveness Redbook, or Redbook for short, it breaks down every segment of Geogia, with demographics, business applications, international competitiveness, and transportation among the topics.
“Our goal is to continue to provide valuable business intelligence and long-term forecasting for your business. Having access to high-quality data will enable strategic decision-making by Georgia business and elected leaders to sustain Georgia’s record-breaking economic success,” said Daniela Perry, Executive Director of the Georgia Chamber Foundation, in the news release announcing the document.
“Georgia Chamber and their foundation put this information out to show our competitiveness, ultimately,” Russell Lahodny, President and CEO of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce, told ABD. “Where we stand in the market. Areas that we excel in and areas that maybe we might need to do a little better. I think it’s a good opportunity to really think, almost like a report card of where we stand and where you need to do better.”
This is the third year the Redbook has been published. Its goal is to point out economic achievements, while forecasting anticipated trends to ensure business and legislative decision-making. The team analyzed existing data providing county-specific details and, when possible, state-by-state comparisons.
“The Georgia Chamber’s Redbook is a treasure chest of economic data for Georgia’s business, community, non-profit, and political leaders. Because of the hard work from Daniela and her team at the Georgia Chamber Foundation, the Redbook has become an indispensable resource, and I commend the Foundation for another job well done,” said Chris Clark, President & CEO of the Georgia Chamber.
One area Redbook highlights is the relationship between the state’s strong business climate and its impact on sustained growth with 359,000 jobs and $154 billion in capital investment over the past six years. The data implies the rate of population growth in rural Georgia will surpass that in Atlanta and hub cities, including Augusta.
Lahodny does not believe that is worrisome for Metro Augusta.
“If we want to be smart about our growth, we’re going to have to rely on some of our outlying counties,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing out in the Thomson-McDuffie area and Washington County are prime examples of that kind of collaboration and then reaping the benefits of the growth that both Richmond County and Columbia County have seen over the years.”
Coming in at 164 pages, Redbook’s Table of Contents helps readers navigate topics most important to them.
Lahodny said Redbook can be informative for anyone who wants to see where Georgia stands today and what to anticipate in the future.
“At the end of the day, it’s all valuable information. It’s a great tool for chambers, it’s a great tool for economic developers, but it’s a good tool for the business community too, to really understand, again, where we sit, and where there might be opportunities for them to maybe grow their business, to maybe expand their business in other parts of the state,” he said. “From the Georgia Chamber’s perspective, they do this for a reason. It’s not just that they want to print a bunch of booklets. This is meant to be a tool for our state and for our communities to really leverage the assets that we have.”
Redbook is available online at www.gachamber.com/redbook/
