Cuba ready for Georgia money, Sen. Lucas says

ATLANTA -- A Georgia state Senate study committee on Cuba is about to report what it found about economic, political and social life in the Communist island country.

State Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, who is chairman of the committee, said the point of the work, he said, is to help Georgia get ready for opportunities when Cuba and the U.S. begin trading.

"Sooner or later, something's going to happen," said Lucas. "When that sooner or later happens, we need to be ready."

Lucas and a group of Georgia businesspeople, lawmakers and others took a trip to Cuba earlier this year. The committee's report will be finalized and published in the coming weeks.

Part of what they found on the trip, he said, was infrastructure in such a bad state that the visitors bypassed tap water for bottled water. He also described traders and businesspeople who were glad to see Americans and their money.

"What we did take away is that there's plenty of opportunities for investment from us," Lucas said. He suggested there are markets for many things including infrastructure work and one of Georgia's top exports: poultry.

Lucas got bipartisan state Senate approval for the study committee earlier this year, a few months after the federal government announced it and Cuba would work on normalizing relations. The U.S. broke diplomatic ties with Cuba in 1961.

The future of U.S. policy in Cuba lies with decision-makers in Washington, D.C., Lucas said.

But Georgians can try and make connections through cracks appearing in the wall between the two countries.

Among the people on the trip was Mercer University School of Medicine Dean William Bina. He said that while they made no official health-related visits, the trip was useful for getting an idea of the island's health and safety environment. Eventually, he said, his school could set up faculty exchanges with Cuban institutions, perhaps one day to be followed by student visits to Cuba.

To contact writer Maggie Lee, e-mail mlee@macon.com.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Cuba ready for Georgia money, Sen. Lucas says ."