The competition is fierce.

There may be as many as a hundred emerging super-cities around the world. In the United States we have such fast-developing metro centers as Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, Orlando, New Orleans, and many others.

Elsewhere, the competition includes such cities as Melbourne, Taipei, Sao Paulo, Toronto, Guadalajara, Lyons, Stuttgart, and scores of others. All of them want many of the same things Atlanta wants and they are willing to work very hard to do better than Atlanta.

All of the competitors have one thing in common: cities of the future must be built project-by-project. There is no quick and easy route to success.

It was this building-block approach which made Atlanta a NATIONAL city during recent decades. Among those building blocks were

HARTSFIELD -- guaranteed airport capacity.

STADIUM -- brought major league teams.

I-285 -- expanded the metro area.

LAKE LANIER -- assured water supply, recreation.

GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH -provided a technological base.

MERCHANDISE MART -- leadership in distribution.

LENOX SQUARE -- a retail model.

WORLD CONGRESS CENTER -- attracted large conventions.

TECHNOLOGY PARK/ATLANTA -- pioneered R&D center.

MARTA -- promised future transit service.

STONE MOUNTAIN PARK -- added a dimension.

We are certainly not wise enough to rank these elements in importance or say which ones, if any, we didn't need. What we know is that the combination clicked.

The city/hinterland link.

Another critical factor in building a world class center is the degree to which the growth center is integrated with a large and productive hinterland.

Recent discussions of proposed development plans for Georgia seem to have begun with the assertion that there are "two Georgias" and that we must therefore have two strategies. This is dangerous thinking.

There are not two Georgias - there are at least three. And any attempt to develop them via separate development plans is doomed to failure. Instead, we must understand what the three key parts are and how they fit into one strong, integrated effort. The three Georgias include:

1. The growth centers, such as Atlanta, Macon, Augusta, Savannah, Columbus and several smaller cities. These are metro centers which already have a mix of assets which enables them to compete in the business community.

2. The integrated hinterlands of these growth centers. These are the areas which are already participating directly in the economic success of the growth centers. For Atlanta, the impact area is much of North Georgia plus some areas well beyond.

3. The non-integrated hinterlands. These are remote or rural areas which are yet benefitting directly from the success of the growth centers.

The growth centers reflect the strength of their integrated hinterlands, and the hinterlands reflect the success of their centers. As the integrated hinterlands expand, the non-integrated areas shrink. Thus, sound development strategy must involve better integration so that all segments benefit.

In seeking to attract investment it is also essential to bear in mind what corporate site seekers are looking for.

Corporate facility planners today know that the preferred life style of most Americans involves a homesite in a quiet suburb, small town, or rural area with a job just a few minutes away, plus easy access -- in less than an hour -- to all of the sophisticated services of a large metro complex.

Our New Plant Reporting service, which tracks the locations of some 3,000 major plants per year, confirms this. Most of the new facilities are locating in the growth centers and integrated hinterlands. Only a small percentage are going to the nonintegrated hinterlands.

To be successful in this highly competitive world, we must, therefore, offer the kind of sites people want. We must lead from strength. To attempt to attract people to the kinds of sites they don't want would be folly.

This means we must continue to invest in the enhancement of our growth centers so that their areas of impact will be expanded. Those in the hinterlands will benefit directly.

Atlanta is Georgia's greatest attraction and hence must be the focus of the state's main development effort. Some will say this is not good politics but neither is failure and frustration, and that is the alternative.

With these points established, we can now sketch in a program for making Atlanta a world class city -- and in the process making Atlanta's hinterland a world class hinterland.

Atlanta's building blocks for the future.

1. AIRPORT CAPACITY. Atlanta must continue to add capacity, via expansion at Hartsfield and addition of a second airport, to maintain its position at the top of the air transport industry.

2. OUTER PERIMETER. If any single project is the key to making Atlanta a world class city, this is it. In my opinion, dollars spent for the outer loop will pay a higher return than any other investment.

3. DOMED STADIUM. For some cities a very expensive domed stadium may be a questionable investment, but for Atlanta this facility is an absolute must. Atlanta must be a meeting place for all seasons.

4. WATER. All of Atlanta's great prospects could be shattered by a water shortage. We must invest in another dam or whatever is required to make absolutely certain that we have a more than adequate supply.

5. TECHNOLOGY CENTERS. We must build new centers of excellence in several fields of technology. One obvious area is bio technology, combining the resources of Georgia Tech, Emory, the CDC, and other institutions.

6. WORLD COMMUNICATIONS CENTER. Another great area of opportunity for leadership lies in the field of communications technology. This center should integrate the resources of CNN, Bell South, IBM, Scientific Atlanta, Hayes, and many smaller firms such as my own.

7. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Gridlock is coming! (Those who travel Ashford Dunwoody near the perimeter at rush hour will say it is already here.) We must arrange new financing plans for extending MARTA into the hinterland. An obvious need is to shuttle workers from the inner city to jobs far beyond the perimeter.

8. NEW POLITICAL MECHANISMS. Many of the items on our new agenda are big projects which cross many lines. Who is responsible? We cannot afford a standoff in which the mayors point to the legislature, the governor points to county commissions, or all look to the feds. After reviewing the positive and negative experiences with such mechanisms as Maclog, ARC, and MARTA, the General Assembly should propose a new plan for managing super projects. Perhaps they could start with the domed stadium.

9. WASTE DISPOSAL. It is no longer acceptable to dispose of urban wastes via land fills. We must start now to install sophisticated new resource recovery systems. (We call them "decoplex" or development/ecology installations.)

10. GREEN BELTS. Whatever plans and projects are undertaken, we must provide for a substantial amount of permanent open space within the two perimeters - farms, parks, golf courses, riding academies, and forests. This will require new and innovative incentives to make the program attractive to land owners.

    We want people to come here from all over the world to see how well we have harmonized new development with the environment. This is not only good business -- improving quality of life must be our ultimate objective.

Our competitors think big and so must we!

We have identified more than 150 "super projects" underway around the world today. Let's look a just a few:

• The long-discussed "chunnel" under the English channel is now beginning to move. Scheduled for completion in 1993, the 30-mile tunnel will link Calais and Folkstone, cutting surface travel time between London and Paris by three hours.

  Other strategic links are being planned and promoted for Gibraltar, the Bosporus at Istanbul, between North and South Islands in New Zealand, and for the straits of Messina in Italy.

• Japan's second city, Osaka, is building a new airport on an artificial island connected to the mainland by a two-mile bridge. Estimated total cost is $8 billion. In this country, Denver is one of several major cities building new airports.

• Huge water projects can be found around the globe. Among the largest are the James Bay Le Grande project in Canada, the ltaipu project on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, and a Soviet project near Lake Baikal in Siberia.

• Some of the boldest projects involve the construction of new national capitals. Nigeria is building a new capital at Abuja, involving a new city estimated to have a population of 1.6 million by the year 2000. Argentina has recently announced plans to move its capital from Bueno Aires to a new site at Vied ma in Patagonia.

• Athens and Taipei are building rapid transit systems. Saudi Arabia has invested $50 billion in a new port/industrial complex at Jubail. Already, the facility has attracted 19 major industries, including eight petroleum refineries.

Here in the United States, the search is underway for a site for one of this nation's largest projects ever. This is the $6 billion superconducting super collider planned by DOE for advanced research.

Last month I looked at about a dozen of the sites being proposed from coast to coast. These sites must be at least 18 miles long by 14 miles wide and must meet rigid geological criteria to accommodate the 50-mile long tunnel which will circle under the entire site.

That is thinking big!

What this tells us is that Atlantans don't have any monopoly on creativity or courage. To compete in the 21st century will take our very best effort

Challenge to Gwinnett.

What does all this mean to Gwinnett?

which rapid growth offers us in the short term. Everyone in this room is well aware that we are now riding high, and the years just ahead will be filled with exciting new projects.

Instead, let's look a few years farther down the road when the growth rate slows and the easy opportunities begin to move on. Having watched DeKaIb County closely for the past 30 years, I believe we can see an experience there that we don't want to repeat in Gwinnett.

Not too many years ago, DeKaIb was the growth center, leading the parade. DeKaIb had the opportunity to build a technology park and capture the new high-technology enterprises. But the county leaders failed to act, and the development trend went to wall-to-wall warehouses.

The warehouses may be good, but they don't spawn the kind of new economic vitality that research and development facilities do. In the development world today research centers are the cream.

As we know, Gwinnett has grabbed an early lead in attracting high-technology activities. This has been done despite the lack of a strong non-profit basic research institution or university in the county.

Now is the time for Gwinnett to institutionalize some of its high-tech assets. Perhaps some type of public-private technology council would be a way to start. The objective must be to create a significant permanent scientific base.

This is the way to guarantee economic vitality for the long term. Such planning must be done now, even though the county is in the thick of an all-out effort to cope with pressing growth problems.

Winning generals are those who, in heat of battle, can conceive of and implement strategies. Those who are too busy to pause and think are called losers.

Closing

We face the most fluid, unpredictable era in business history.

To succeed, we must accept change as a way of life. We must develop increasing talent for adapting, creating, and implementing new ideas.

Here in greater Atlanta we have as good an opportunity as anywhere in the world. Whether we become world class depends on us.