Economy Minister: Georgia will have new, sustainable mechanisms to support energy projects

Georgia will have new, fiscally sustainable mechanisms to improve the support framework for energy projects, which will help to ensure energy independence, Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili said on Friday at a plenary session of the Georgian Parliament. 

Davitashvili noted the “current geopolitical developments” had made the importance of energy independence and security “even clearer”, adding “one of the most important” components of the country's energy independence would be the so-called Flagship project of a Black Sea submarine transmission cable, which involves the construction of a new cable connecting the Georgian and Romanian power systems.

The Minister highlighted that despite the decline in Georgia’s exports to Ukraine and Russia, it had been compensated with increases for the United States, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Turkey and Georgia's other neighbouring countries, adding domestic exports had increased by 31.1 percent in 2022.

Davitashvili also spoke about the positive trends in terms of employment, noting the unemployment rate had decreased in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year by 2.5 percent, explaining the post-pandemic recovery of the economy in 2021 had “contributed” to the reduction of the poverty level by 3.8 percent.