World Bank: “We are pleased with Georgia’s 4-point reform agenda”

The World Bank Group is praising the four-point Governmental reform plan that aims to improve Georgia’s investment environment.

The Government of Georgia introduced its four-point reform program in February. The local business community, international financial institutions, foreign investors and politicians positively assessed the reform agenda, noting it would support economic development.

The four-point reform plan, which includes new tax benefits, infrastructure plans, governance reforms and an overhaul of the education system, was the Georgian Prime Minister’s plan to increase economic development.

Today Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili met the World Bank's Regional Director for the South Caucasus Mercy Tembon in his Tbilisi office.

After discussing reform agenda the officials spoke about the current World Bank-Georgia partnership strategy, which was a program amounting to $1.2 billion USD to support Georgia’s economic development.

We came to discuss the status of the implementation of this program which covers 2014-2017 years. Currently the program is being implemented satisfactorily. We are also very pleased with the Government’s new four-point reform agenda,” said Tembon.

She went on to announce after the current program had ended, the World Bank hoped to start another program covering the years 2018-2020.

But before we do this we will undertake a systematic country diagnostic that looks at the constrains on the economic rules, poverty reduction and we are hoping we will work together with the Government of Georgia and all the development partners to move the agenda forward in this country. We are very optimistic about that,” she added.

The World Bank website stated the agency was currently involved in 101 development projects in Georgia, ranging from the East-West main highway upgrade to empowering local entrepreneurs.