Deputy Economy Minister promotes green growth in Georgian enterprises at national conference

Georgian Deputy Economy Minister Romeo Mikautadze on Tuesday highlighted the importance of resource efficiency in the industry sector and of promoting green growth in Georgian enterprises in comments at a national conference on the subjects.

Speaking at the event entitled Will Resource Efficiency be at the Core of Business Success in Georgia?, Mikautadze told participants the Government “clearly understood” the opportunities of green economy and its potential for “sustainable economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction”. 

In the long term, resource efficiency in industry will reduce business costs and increase competitiveness, employment and income”, he said.

The Deputy Minister added small and medium-sized enterprises represented 99.7 percent of companies operating in Georgia.

In order to achieve goals of environmental protection, it is especially important to involve small and medium-sized enterprises in this process. Enterprises of this type are much more flexible to changes that would make their products more energy and resource efficient, socially effective and, of course, green”, he pointed out.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation has developed a resource-efficient and clean production methodology to identify the sources of production losses. The methodology also allows both the possibility and feasibility of reducing and eliminating losses to be developed and evaluated”, the official added.

Organised by the UNIDO as a part of the activities on Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production under the EU4Environment Action funded by the European Union, the national conference will be closed later today.