Despite development and other challenges in Brazil during the run-up to the World Cup, Brazil and Rio de Janeiro will be ready for the 2016 Summer Olympics, according to a professor of international business at Georgia State University.

David C. Bruce, of the Institute of International Business (IIB) in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State, specializes in global competitiveness, trade development and executive education. He is the co-founder and manager of the U.S.-Latin America Trade Program at the IIB.

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“Since most of the Olympic venues will be in Rio de Janeiro, running the Olympics will be easier than the World Cup,” Bruce said. “Rio is a city ready for tourists. Transportation of the fans will be much less challenging. For the World Cup, new stadiums were built in several cities all around the country. Mário Filho Stadium at Maracanã in Rio will be the Olympic Stadium. It was already updated for the Cup.

“A number of events will take place in Barra where various facilities were built for the Pan American Games several years ago,” he continued. “In other cases, only temporary venues will be created. Finally, lessons will be learned from the World Cup experience.”

Bruce has been the president of the Georgia Chapter of the Partners of the Americas, which coordinates relations between Georgia and its sister state of Pernambuco in Brazil. Previously he was also the chairman of the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce of Georgia.

Currently he serves as chairman of the Brazil Task Force at Georgia State University. Annually he conducts a study abroad course on Management in South America. In August 2014 the class will spend two weeks in Brazil including stops in Recife, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro.

In 1996, Bruce served as the executive producer of a telecourse on “Impact of the Olympic Movement” conducted for the University System of Georgia and Georgia Public Television. Last April Bruce participated in the Atlanta Trade Mission to Brazil headed by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. At that time, the delegation met with the leaders of the Rio Olympic Organizing Committee.

For more about David C. Bruce, visit http://robinson.gsu.edu/profile/david-c-bruce/.