Tbilisi hosts Georgia-Kazakhstan Business Forum

Georgia is looking at ways to enhance ties with its "strategic partner” Kazakhstan by developing bilateral tourism, real estate and business relations.

About 40 Kazakh businessmen are in capital Tbilisi to attend the Georgia-Kazakhstan Business Forum. Georgia is seeking to attract more investments from Kazakhstan and has informed the foreign guests about the opportunities offered by Georgia’s business-friendly environment and ways both sides can benefit from closer ties.

Kazakhstan was and will be our strategic partner. So far Georgia has received about $300 million USD investments from Kazakhstan,” said Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili this morning while speaking at the forum.

Georgia showcased a range of investment projects currently underway at the Business Forum in the fields of agriculture, tourism, real estate, logistics, retail, transit and more.

We are offering investors all the potential that we have in real estate, development and tourism directions. At the same time we are introducing them to all the support programs offered by the state. From this I hope positive decisions will be made and Georgian and Kazakh businesses will deepen their friendships,” Kumsishvili said.

The Minister added the Georgian side wanted to attract more investments from Kazakhstan, meaning more money was in the local economy and this would help create jobs and improve the well-being of Georgia’s people.

The Georgia-Kazakhstan Business Forum was organised by Forbes Georgia and Forbes Kazakhstan. The Forum was held today in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

Kazakhstan was typically an important foreign investor and has supported a number of projects and companies in Georgia over the years.

About 40 Kazakh businessmen arrived in capital Tbilisi to attend the Georgia-Kazakhstan Business Forum. Photo by Georgia's Ministry of Economy.

KazTransGaz Tbilisi is a subsidiary of the Kazakh company KazTransGaz, which was established in Tbilisi in 2006. Currently the company served about 384,055 gas customers in Tbilisi. Between 2006 and 2014 KazTransGaz Tbilisi invested about 92 million GEL to improve the technologies and service for Tbilisi gas users.

Another Kazakh company that operates in Georgia is Batumi Industrial Holdings, which is a 100 percent daughter company of KazTransOil, the national oil transporter in Kazakhstan. Batumi Industrial Holdings owns Batumi oil terminal and has operated Batumi Port for 49 years.

Two banks - Halyk Bank and BTA Bank – operate with Kazakh capital in Georgia.

Meanwhile Georgia’s state-owned shareholding company, the Partnership Fund, and Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and Gas Company KazMunaiGas, opened a five-star Rixos Hotel in the Likani district of Borjomi in south-central Georgia. About $38.5 million USD was invested in the hotel, which opened last year.

Last year 100 businesses were established in Georgia using Kazakh capital.

Kazakhstan first started investing in Georgia in 2006. Georgia received the largest amount of investments from Kazakhstan in that first year ($152.31 million), but it dropped slightly in 2007 ($88.49 million) and again in 2008 ($65.94 million).

In the last two years the amount of money Kazakhstan has invested in Georgia has dropped further and now Georgia hoped to reinvigorate Kazakhstan as a donor country and encourage bilateral relations.