Georgian PM: innovative startups to be exempted from all taxes for 3 years

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Tuesday announced a new initiative to enhance the domestic innovation ecosystem by assigning companies a status of innovative startups and granting them tax exemptions for three years.

Speaking at the 10th anniversary of Georgia's Innovation and Technology Agency, Kobakhidze said a relevant bill would be initiated by the Government “in the near future”.

The PM said artificial intelligence, phages and agricultural technology had been defined as primary directions to “maximise the global competitiveness” of the country’s economy and full use of its scientific potential.

[I]n today's world it is impossible to establish a worthy place in global competition without the development of artificial intelligence. In response to this new reality, a special scientific group will be created to work on the implementation of artificial intelligence in education, healthcare, agriculture and other areas”, he said.

The next key area is phages. [...] Georgia is a pioneer in this technology, and the country has almost a century of experience in phage research. Today, when the demand for phages is especially increasing worldwide, Georgia can offer the world important technological products in this direction”, the Government head added.

Finally, agro-technologies - the largest part of the population of the country is employed in the agricultural sector. The Agency aims to create new scientific and technological products that will help local farmers to increase productivity and competitiveness”, he concluded.

The PM congratulated the GITA with “very impressive results” over the past 10 years of work and said its achievements had made a “great contribution to the further progress of Georgia” and the development of its economic system.