Doing business in Georgia now easier for foreigners

The average monthly salary for people employed in the business sector was 851.7 GEL. Photo by N. Alavidze/Agenda.ge
Agenda.ge, 02 Mar 2016 - 12:58, Tbilisi,Georgia

Opening a new business is becoming easier and faster for foreign investors wanting to do business in Georgia.

From today the decree on business registration is available not only in Georgian but also in English language.

Foreign businessmen should go to the webpage of the National Agency of Public Registry of Ministry of Justice of Georgia to get the English language decree on business registration.

Now foreign investors are free to fill in all the gaps easily which are needed for business registration in Georgia. Before they had to translate the decree because they didn't understand the Georgian language. While translating the decree, investors lost time and money,” read the press statement by the National Agency of Public Registry.

The Agency explained growing numbers of foreigners wanted to register their businesses in Georgia, which led to the decision to make this procedure simpler for them and offer the information in English.

At this stage the Georgia-English decree on registrering a business is available only for Limited Liability Companies as "it was the most popular form of registering a business”, read the press release.

However the National Agency of Public Registry planned to translate all legal forms for foreigners to make registering a business in Georgia faster and easier for them.

In January 2016, a total of 2,812 businesses were registered in Georgia, said the Agency.

Individual entrepreneurs and Limited Liability Companies were the most sought after type of businesses in January.

More specifically, the Agency noted 1,419 business entities were registered as individual entrepreneurs, while 1,276 others were registered as Limited Liability Companies.

Georgia was one of the most attractive countries in terms of doing business, claimed the World Bank’s Doing Business 2016 data for Georgia.

Georgia was the third country among 189 nations with the simplest procedures of registering property, said the report.

Georgia was also among the top ten countries in terms of ease of ‘starting a business’ – it gained 6th position – while it also ranked highly for ‘getting credit’ in 7th place.

It is possible to register a business in one day in Georgia. Entrepreneurs must choose which type of business they want to register , then simply fill in the appropriate legal forms.

Those who want to register a profit-making business are free to choose from any of the following business types; Limited Liability Company, Joint Stock Company, Joint Liability Company, Limited Partnership, Cooperative, and Individual Entrepreneur.

It cost 100 GEL (regular registration) or 200 GEL (accelerated registration) plus 1 GEL in bank fees to register a new business in Georgia. Opening a bank account is free of charge.