Why Georgia?
Tbilisi Silk Road Forum investors name reasons

“Strategic location”, “sound business and investment conditions”, “macro stability”, “fiscal discipline”, “potential in renewable energy”, “law tax rates” and a “simplified taxation system” are among the top reasons investors choose Georgia, participants of Tbilisi Silk Road Forum have said, adding the country’s political leadership was also “active” in attracting new investors and creating “favourable conditions” for them. 

The Forum hosted its B2B meetings platform to help foreign and domestic investors and business identify opportunities and develop common projects, reach relevant partners and learn first-hand about investment or cooperation opportunities. 

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Here Agenda.ge shares the investment opportunities Forum participants found in Georgia.

Yann Guinard, the Vice-President of the international department for Central & Eastern Europe at EDF energy company, said Georgia was a “very attractive country” that met his company’s standards, and noted Georgia’s potential in generating clean energy and cross-border trade.

Guinard said ongoing reforms in the country and “three important parts of the policy” had led his company to invest in it.

First, it is a continuous effort to implement reforms and create an enabling environment for business [...] Second - the implementation of structural reforms in the energy sector [...] Third - this is the commitment taken by Georgia in the direction of the energy transaction, for EDF”, he said.

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Prakash Kejriwal, the Director of Indorama Group, a Singapore-based synthetics producer, said his company’s goal was to expand businesses in Georgia. 

Georgia has a very attractive business environment, its political leadership promotes business development. I think your country offers great opportunities for investors, which helps to develop the manufacturing industry and offer products to the European Union", he said.

Pat Patel, the CEO of Elevandi, a Singapore-based FinTech platform, found “good” potential of Georgia in development of financial technologies. 

It's evident that Georgia is on the right track. The focus now should be on formulating a 10-year roadmap to champion fintech's growth and adoption across the nation. By creating a strategic blueprint that draws on the expertise of the central bank, major financial institutions, and budding fintechs, Georgia can lay the groundwork for a robust FinTech community”, he said.

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Giorgi Tsikolia, the Regional Director of the United States-based tech company Lineate, said Georgia was becoming “attractive” for global companies with its IT industry, with the latter taking an “honourable place” next to logistics and tourism.

When we decided to expand our organisation in Europe and set up various offices, we also carried out appropriate analytical processes and discovered Georgia, which is the leading economy among the countries of Eastern Europe”, Tsikolia said.

Legislation, investment climate, desire to become an EU member and stable national currency are making Georgia attractive for foreign investors, according to José Enrique Bofill, the Regional Director for MENA-Asia at Aqualia, a water management company.

We invested in the water system of Georgia in 2022. Why did we choose Georgia? - Because everyone always spoke quite well about this country, as well as about how good the investment climate is here [...] Georgia is actually a country of the European Union, it's just not called that yet", he said.

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Alexander Benard, the Senior Managing Director at Cerberus capital management company, said Georgia was a new market but with “really incomparable” characteristics.

We are focused on countries that have a Western orientation, and this attention is growing in countries like Georgia, which is small but very active. I would put infrastructure in the centre, because from a Middle Corridor perspective, that's what gets a lot of attention. It is a complex corridor, with land and sea infrastructure, and it is most important that the Georgian Government pays great attention to it”, he said.

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Archil Gachechiladze, the CEO of Bank of Georgia, said “banking questions” were a topic of interest for “all investors” exploring Georgia’s investment environment. “Georgia is a leader in the region in this regard", he added.

Gachechiladze said “macro stability, fiscal discipline, law tax rates and a simplified taxation system” made Georgia a distinguished country in the wider region.

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Soso Pkhakadze, the President of the Business Association of Georgia - one of the supporters and sponsors of the Forum - said the event provided new opportunities and opened a new window for both the country and business. 

After the Forum, new relationships between companies begin, which translates into investments, and new investments are new jobs and further business development [...] A large-scale event of this type, the communication platform always attracts the attention of large international investment groups and companies”, he said.

Nino Kobakhidze, the General Manager of the Benefits insurance company, said the Forum had a “historical purpose”, and was “very important” for the business sector".

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

We had a number of business meetings. We believe that this year it will be even more important to define our potential as a regional hub and to offer new investment potential to our partners from countries that are represented both as neighbours and from many European countries", she said.

Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili noted the Forum was expected to be concluded with “important and favourable” new deals. 

In addition to the fact that practical agreements are signed between the governments of different countries or international organisations, we hope that businesses will make important and favourable deals within the forum, the prerequisites for this are already in place”, he said.

Photo: Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

About 2,300 delegates from 63 countries attended the Silk Road Forum between October 26-27 in the Georgian capital to discuss global economic challenges, ways to solve them, and aspects and perspectives of cooperation for connectivity. 

Founded by Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, the first edition of the Forum was hosted in Tbilisi in 2015.