by Suman Gupta
US Southeast, which this Post covers, has a GDP of $3.6 trillion and a population of 80 million. Metro Atlanta is has emerged as the main business hub for the Southeast US. It is now amongst the fastest growing metros in the US and has the 10th largest economy ($295 billion) in the US as measured by Gross Metro Product. Metro Atlanta is host to 28 Fortune 500 companies such as Coca Cola,UPS, Home Depot, CNN, NCR, First data Corp, Equifax Inc. etc. It has emerged as the world leader in financial technology related global payment and financial services industries (Four of the top 20 American FinTech companies are headquartered here, NCR Corp. First Data Corp, Total systems Services and Equifax). It is also emerging as the manufacturing hub in US especially in automotive parts, aerospace, defence (our Lockheed Martin C-130s are being built here). It is now the second largest base of movie/TV production after Hollywood. Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the World’s busiest airport in terms of passengers handled with over 100 million passengers travelling through it last year. The Airport is the foremost economic driver not just for the Metro Atlanta area but for the entire Southeast region. It looms large in every economic activity of the city and state generating almost 500,000 jobs and more than $60 billion in annual revenues. It wields tremendous clout as an institution in the local economy and polity.
