By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG has been invited to become sister city of Athens Clarke County in the USA.
The Georgia city-county invitation comes as acting mayor Bruce Harwood prepares to fly with a Geelong delegation to bioscience conferences in Atlanta and Kansas next month.
The delegation will include executives from Geelong’s CSIRO, BioGeelong, Animal Health Laboratory and Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Cr Harwood was keen to push the sister city invitation further as a strategic alliance with serious milestones and outcomes – unlike two sister/friendship ties Geelong has in China and Japan that have delivered little or nothing of economic value.
The Athens invitation, from mayor Nancy Denson, has been coupled with approaches from bioscience bodies in Atlanta keen to check Geelong’s potential for joint projects.
“These approaches represent great opportunities for Geelong, as Atlanta is acknowledged as an international centre for bioscience and advanced manufacturing,” Cr Harwood said.
Previous delegations to North Carolina and a world bioscience conference at Atlanta had provided “extensive information in relation to the importance of bioscience developments around the world” and commercial opportunities for Geelong, he said.
“Geelong has already attracted two biotech start-up companies as a result of our engagement in bioscience activities in Atlanta,” Cr Harwood said.
International consultants have encouraged Geelong to pursue biotech opportunities since the 1980s.
A report to council this week said a strategic sister city held “great potential to build both cities’ profiles within the bioscience industry and exploit opportunities that may be presented in various commercial fields”.
High-profile Geelong bioscience company, ChemGenex, left the city in 2011 after merging city a US bio-tech firm.
