Georgian PM to German Deutsche Welle:
“We are making Georgia into a regional economic hub”

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze spoke to leading German media outlet ‘Deutsche Welle’ on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he talked about the process of turning Georgia into a regional economic hub.

If you look at a map, Georgia is the natural candidate to become the regional hub. The strategy of my government is to make Georgia a regional hub for business, trade, finance, logistics, tourism and education”, said Bakhtadze.

He said that the government is trying to implement ‘very creative’ reforms to attract more investments in Georgia. 

We consider ourselves a bridge from Asia to Europe as we are the shortest link. We would like to facilitate the growing volume of trade between Asia and Europe. This is the reason why we are investing so much in our infrastructure and I am very happy in Davos that we see there are more and more companies willing to invest in Georgia and participate in these very important programmes and projects”, Bakhtadze said.

See the full interview of PM Bakhtadze to Deutsche Welle below:

The journalist also asked about Georgia-Russia relations and challenges that Georgia faces due to its two occupied regions Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia). In response Bakhtadze said that 20 per cent of Georgia’s territory is occupied by Russia and Russia still continues occupation of Georgian territories.

This is the most painful challenge for my nation. In the last six years we have implemented serious reforms which help us transform Georgian into a modern European state with the rule of law, a vibrant political life and enormous investment opportunities. For all investors the major preconditions to invest in the country are safety, security, predictability and stability”, said Bakhtadze.

Bakhtadze added that despite having “painful challenges” with Russia, Georgia still managed to demonstrate that “we can deliver safety and predictability and we can do it in a most sustainable way”.

Therefore, Georgia is a major investment destination and success of our economic policy is indicated in all major international rankings. We are trying our best to minimise those risks and at the same time to create the investment opportunities to all international investors”, Bakhtadze said.

Another question from the Deutsche Welle journalist was related to Georgia’s aspirations for  EU and the NATO membership. “You’ve also been saying that you’ve been trying to prepare your country’s democratic institutions for when the time comes. What does that mean concretely?” – asked a journalist.

For us joining the EU and the NATO are the main aspirations which is fully supported by majority of our population. We are very successful on this path and of course we do not have an illusion that this will happen overnight… Last year NATO once again stated that Georgia would eventually become a member of NATO. We are also looking at the process itself because it yields very important results for Georgia,” said Bakhtadze.

At the end Bakhtadze said that “we have full commitment to our aspirations and we assure that Georgia will eventually become a member of the EU and the NATO”.