Emerging Europe: "Georgia’s great potential"

Jan van Bilsen, IFC Regional Manager for the South Caucasus. Photo from Emerging Europe.
Agenda.ge, Jan 04, 2018, Tbilisi, Georgia

Jan van Bilsen, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Regional Manager for the South Caucasus, talks about Georgia’s great potential, as well as some of the challenges it still faces in the latest interview published by the Emerging Europe.

Georgia has progressed a lot over the past decade. The government is very business friendly. A lot of improvements have been made in terms of investment climate. Therefore, the economy is growing. We see that it’s increasing the appetite to do business in the country not only from Georgians themselves, but also from overseas. There is clearly a positive feeling at the moment towards Georgia that the government is making use of,” said Bilsen.

On the other hand, Bilsen stated that more focus on exports was needed for Georgia to develop further.

Once exports increase the country will continue to grow further and to improve standards of living, and therefore reduce poverty and everything that accompanies that. They need to increase exports, and they’re working on it.
But for that to happen — now that I have put it a bit into context — the country needs to improve on productivity. It needs to make sure it has a more competitive business sector. They also need to offer international standards. There are only certain sectors in which this is happening, while the other sectors still have room to grow into that sense,” he said.

Read the full story here.