Georgia in “advanced positions” in World Bank’s governance indicators - Finance Minister

Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili on Wednesday said the country was taking “advanced positions” in the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators measuring the quality of governance.

In his comments for presenting the revised version of the 2024 state budget in the Parliament, Khutsishvili told lawmakers Georgia “clearly stood out” not only in the Black Sea region but “also among European Union [membership] candidate countries”.

According to the governance indicators of the World Bank, Georgia is ahead of 13 EU countries and all candidate countries in terms of regulation. In the indicator of corruption control, Georgia is ahead of 10 EU countries and all candidate countries. In the indicator of government efficiency, Georgia is ahead of eight EU countries and all eight candidate countries”, he pointed out.

“The high quality of governance has been positively assessed by rating agencies and in all reports it is mentioned as a strong point of our economy”, the official added.

The Minister said the indicator of political stability of the country was a “challenge” due to “geopolitical risks” and the Russian occupation of the country’s regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

He added the country had a “fairly good” starting condition in the level of quality of governance, which made it “difficult to show a sharp progress” later, but was “very important” for convergence to the average EU standards.

The Minister also stressed the importance of the European Commission’s report that last week recommended the European Council to grant Georgia the EU membership candidate status and expressed hope the country would “deservedly” receive the status next month.