Georgia focuses on digital development

"Developing digital technologies and a digital market is very important for us as it can promote inclusion, efficiency and innovation in Georgia,” said Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili.

These words were in a speech the Minister gave at a special forum today at the new Tbilisi Technology Park.

We have implemented number of important reforms in recent years. We received the first dividends from the digital reform when Georgia switched from analogue to digital broadcasting,” said Kumsishvili at the Business Forum: Innovation and Digital Economy.

The Minister also said it was important the country continue its reforms path and another step to do this was to make the internet accessible throughout Georgia.

This will enable us to provide new services to the population including distance education, distance treatment, e-commerce and more,” said Kumsishvili.

About 40 percent of Georgia’s population have access to the internet. Once the High-Speed Internet for Everyone project is fully implemented, internet will be available in 2,000 Georgian villages, meaning 91 percent of the population will have internet access.

At the forum today Uwe Deichmann, co-director of the World Development Report (WDR) 2016: Digital Dividends, presented the main messages of the latest report by the World Bank Group.

The report said while the internet, mobile phones and other digital technologies were spreading rapidly throughout the developing world, the anticipated digital dividends of higher growth, more jobs, and better public services had fallen short of expectations, and 60 percent of the world’s population remained excluded from the ever-expanding digital economy.