Emerging Europe: Georgia-Leader of Europe’s Second Wave

"Growing economy and increasing political stability make Bruno Balvanera, the EBRD’s director for Caucasus, Moldova & Belarus, confident that Georgia is heading in the right direction”, Emerging Europe’s Andrew Wrobel says.

In an interview with Balvanera Wrobel finds out the reasons why EBRD considers Georgia "the leader of Europe’s Second Wave”.

The EBRD’s investments and activities in Georgia are, per capita, amongst the largest of all the countries in which we operate. We have committed around three billion euros for a country of 3.7 million people. So we’re talking about 850-900 euros per person. It’s one of the highest, if not the highest, in the region”, Balvanera explains.

On the question "where’s the money growing” Balvanera names four main sectors, these are:

• Banking;
• Energy;
• Major Georgian companies ”whether in steel or in retail, or, more recently, in health, pharmacy and hospitals”;
• Infrastructure.

Answering the question "if Georgia is indeed the leader of the Second Wave, what is it that is driving that leadership?" Balvanera says "the most important things are the commitment, the vision and the strategy of the government, and that the government is elected democratically in a transparent way".

The current government won a big majority in the last elections. This size of the majority was an endorsement of what the same government did during its first term in office,” he further said.

Balvanera believes that "for historic reasons, Georgia is more closely linked to Europe”, the country is clear about its orientation: European and North Atlantic, it has very strong ties with Europe, United States (US) and "clearly has a vision of its future lying very much in that direction”.

Read the full article here: www.emerging-europe.com