Governor Brian Kemp announced a new addition to the Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) Program on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at Kia at West Point.
The GRAD Program evaluates available sites to pre-qualify them for construction and industrial development. Due to the success of the 60 GRAD certified sites in attracting new businesses and investors to the state, the program will be expanded to focus on bringing greater economic opportunities to areas in rural Georgia.
“We will devote state funding along with local public and private partnerships to smaller tracts of land in rural Georgia that we’ll call opportunity sites" Kemp stated. "These will further benefit those areas which have historically not received as much attention.”
Governor Kemp also highlighted Georgia’s economic growth during the pandemic, including the state’s historically low unemployment rate and its recent ranking as the “Top State For Doing Business” by Area Development.