Georgia reveals its investment potential to world business leaders

Georgia is fast becoming known as a globally attractive business environment thanks to various business and investment forums where Georgia is positioning itself as a stabile country with a liberal trade regime, low taxes and business efficiency.

Overnight (local time) Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili hosted an investment forum in New York on the topic ‘Georgia-Making Business Easy’, which was attended by more than 300 investors from different countries.

The Georgian Government will support you, your partners and all investors who decide to start and run a business in Georgia” was what Garibashvili said in his address to world leading investors who attended the investment forum.

The most promising sectors in Georgia

The Prime Minister named the banking industry, the transport and logistics industry, the energy sector and the manufacturing and processing of agricultural products as the priority sectors in Georgia where the best conditions were available for investors.

While discussing in detail each avenue of business, Garibashvili said Georgia's banking sector was one of the most developed in the region, while the country's energy sector was attractive due to its abundance of natural resources.

The PM promised the business society the Government would support their activities in Georgia. Photo from the PM's press office. 

The PM also accented Georgia’s growing touristic potential.

Georgia is attractive for tourists all throughout the year. Georgia is diverse with its destinations – it has beautiful beaches, ski resorts, vineyards, the oldest cave towns, gorgeous mountains and forests,” said Garibashvili.

Georgia, as the cradle of wine and cuisine, has potential to develop wine and cuisine tourism. Last year about five million tourists visited Georgia, which is more than the country’s population,” he added.

As for the transport and logistics industry, the Georgian official spoke about the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, which connected Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and would carry containers, cargo and passengers from Asia to Europe 45 percent faster than the current route.

The demand on Georgia’s ports has increased significantly. We have taken into account the growing demand and are building the Anaklia Deep Sea Port. The project includes seven phases. The Port’s annual turnover will be 100 million tonnes and will take Georgia’s logistic opportunities to the next level,” Garibashvili said.

Georgia’s reforms

In front of hundreds of world leaders Garibashvili proudly discussed all the democratic reforms Georgia had implemented. He said the country had made significant progress in all spheres.

Garibashvili noted Georgia had a strategically important location that gave the country huge potential. He said Georgia was a democratic country with no corruption and highlighted the World Bank recognised Georgia as a country where it was easy to do business.

More than 300 businessmen attended the investment forum  in New York on the topic ‘Georgia-Making Business Easy’ hosted by the PM Garibashvili. Photo from the PM's press office. 

The PM also talked about Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and said Georgia attracted $1.75 billion USD FDI in 2014, which was 87 percent more than in 2013 and a seven year record high.

We support new players in the market. In this regard we have created two multimillion investment funds – the Partnership Fund and Georgia’s Co-Investment Fund,” said Garibashvili.

We run a universal health care programme and are proud of strong educational system. Our country is evaluated as stable and positive by leading rating agencies,” he added.

Garibashvili also underlined the importance of a free court system.

Georgia in ratings

The audience learned about how Georgia had significantly improved its positions in all indicators in a recent World Bank report measuring fairness of governments worldwide.

The report said Georgia ranked highest in 2014 in all of six dimensions of governance, covering voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption.

Since 2012 Georgia advanced 16 places in the voice and accountability category, by 22 places in political stability and absence of violence/terrorism and government effectiveness, by 13 places in regulatory quality, by 19 places in rule of law and by 23 places in control of corruption.