Finance Minister announces master plan for 2015

The country’s authorities are taking action to improve the future of Georgia for the entire population.

Fostering the business environment and offering better support to those in need were two of the four things introduced by Georgia’s Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri at today’s Economy Committee meeting in front of Georgian lawmakers in Parliament.

He said the Ministry will focus on four key aspects and implement activities in these fields in the near future to create a better environment in Georgia.

The areas of focus are:

• To protect the customers’ interests in the financial sector;
• To establish a pension reform and create a private insurance pension system;
• Establish deposit insurance; and
• Develop capital market;

Khaduri said Georgia had a chance to raise its business awareness among international business communities this year and this could happen through the several important international events due to be held in Georgia in the coming months.

The first event Khaduri mentioned was the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which will be held in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi from May 13-15, 2015. The event will be EBRD’s 24th Annual Meeting and the first time the conference will be held in the Caucasus region.

Another event mentioned was the annual meeting of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, which will be held in Tbilisi in July.

In addition, the European Investment Bank will open its office in Tbilisi this spring.

Meanwhile a number of infrastructural projects in Georgia were coming to an end. When completed, these would offer support to the country’s economy and encourage tourism, among other things.

One project almost completed was construction of the Georgia-Turkey Kartsakhi customs crossing point, Khaduri said.

Secondly, Georgia was continuing to cooperate with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) for insuring projects.

In addition, negotiations were continuing between Georgia and the World Bank Group to implement the Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) project. 

Georgia was looking to attract funding from the World Bank, who finances large infrastructural projects around the globe.

And finally, Georgia has been also working on inviting the Donors’ Conference to Georgia, which will discuss different issues including the Rikoti Highway project, said Khaduri.

When speaking at the Committee meeting, Khaduri spoke briefly about the problems currently facing the country, such as the depreciation of Georgia’s national currency, the Lari. He noted this fact had caused prices to increase by 0.35 percent in January and by 0.11 percent in February.

Khaduri also said because of changes to the value of the currency against the US dollar, the country’s foreign debt had increased.

On March 18 Georgia expected to host a delegation from the World Bank, who will help the Ministry complete the debt management strategy, Khaduri stated.

The policy of "tightening of belts”, which is about reducing administrative costs, will continue in 2016 as well, Khaduri said. This policy was about creating financial stability in the country.

At the same time Khaduri asked all the structures which are not part of the executive authority, including the Presidential Administration, Parliament and Court, to "tight their belts” as well.