Contact: Sammy McDavid
The head of Brazil's Atlanta consulate visits the state next week as a guest of Mississippi State University.
Consul General Mario G. Roiter will tour the Starkville campus Tuesday (March 24). He then travels to Jackson for a luncheon the following day (the 25th) with business and education leaders and an afternoon meeting with Gov. Kirk Fordice.
Roiter's tour is being organized by MSU's Chair for International Security and Strategic Studies, in cooperation with the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
In addition to being the largest country in South America--almost half the continent--Brazil is one of the world's largest farming countries. A federal republic with a population of more than 160 million, it annually imports some $50 billion in commodities, among them chemical products and foodstuffs.
A former director of the American states department in Brazil's Ministry of External Relations, the 56-year-old Roiter became his country's top Southeastern U.S. diplomat early last year. He holds a master's degree in business administration, with highest honors, from Babson College in Boston, Mass.
While on the Starkville campus Tuesday, Roiter will be guest at a noon luncheon given by the Office of Research. After a brief tour of campus, he will meet at mid-afternoon with President Malcolm Portera.
On Wednesday morning in Jackson, he visits the offices of DECD. Then, as special guest at the Capital Club luncheon, he will deliver an address on the current state of Brazil's nearly $980 billion economy--largest on the southern continent.
He is scheduled to meet with Gov. Fordice at 2 p.m.
Besides Georgia, the Atlanta consulate represents Brazilian interests in Alabama, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee.