Economic Development
| More

Car Star: Georgia Woos and Wins a New Plant

BY: | May 2006



Georgia will be building Kia cars. A deal with the Korean auto-maker, signed in March, should produce at least 4,500 jobs and 300,000 vehicles a year. The $1.2 billion facility, scheduled for completion in 2009, will be located in the small town of West Point, southwest of Atlanta.

The announcement couldn't have come at a better time for Georgia. The state has lost more than 80,000 manufacturing jobs in the past six years. In the past few months alone, both Ford and General Motors announced they were shuttering auto plants in Georgia, for a combined loss of 5,000 jobs.

Georgia has wooed other automobile companies before, losing out twice on efforts to site a DaimlerChrysler facility. For the Kia deal, the state offered a $400 million incentives package, including nearly $200 million in state and local tax breaks. The state also will pay for employee relocation expenses, a training center and new or improved roads, parking lots, landscaping and lighting. Georgia was competing with Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and other states for the Kia facility.

Last month, a bribery scandal involving Kia and its parent company, Hyundai Motor Corp., threatened to sideline the Georgia deal. Prosecutors in Korea suspect Hyundai of paying Korean government officials for favorable construction permits. In their investigation, Korean officials barred the president of Kia from leaving the country. The bribery imbroglio forced the company to delay the groundbreaking at the Georgia factory site, and they did not immediately set a new date. State officials remained confident that the delay in the kickoff ceremony would not affect the construction of the plant.


If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for updates.

Zach Patton
Zach Patton

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism

E-mail: zpatton@governing.com
Twitter: @governing

Comments



Add Your Comment

You are solely responsible for the content of your comments. GOVERNING reserves the right to remove comments that are considered profane, vulgar, obscene, factually inaccurate, off-topic, or considered a personal attack.

Comments must be fewer than 2000 characters.

Latest from Economic Development

  • Which States Have Recovered the Most Lost Jobs?
  • Last month marked the four-year anniversary of the end of the recession. While employment has returned to pre-recession levels in a few states, most are still far from recovering lost jobs.

More From Economic Development

GOVERNING Data

Events & Webinars

  • Putting Crooks on Notice: How you can fight Identity Fraud
  • October 24, 2013
  • Fraud is on the rise. There is evidence that fraud has permeated virtually every government-based benefit program at the state, local and federal level. The federal government estimates that three to five percent of public assistance dollars are lost each year to fraud, and tax related identity fraud has grown 650% since 2008.


More Events & Webinars


© 2011 e.Republic, Inc. All Rights reserved.    |   Privacy Policy   |   Site Map