Deputy Economy Minister, UAE official discuss economic cooperation

“Priority areas” of bilateral economic cooperation between Georgia and the United Arab Emirates were discussed on Friday in a meeting between Mariam Kvrivishvili, Georgian Deputy Economy Minister, and Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh, the UAE Minister of State responsible for economic and trade affairs.

The Georgian Ministry said the meeting, hosted during Kvrivishvili’s visit to the country, “positively assessed” the signing of an agreement on comprehensive economic partnership between the countries, and noted the document would promote bilateral trade relations, increase export of Georgian products to the UAE and have “beneficial effect on cooperation between businesses”.

The parties also noted the UAE was one of the largest investor countries in Georgia, with more than $1.1 billion invested between 2003-2022, with the trend “increasing yearly”.

Sayegh “positively evaluated” Georgia’s investment environment and noted he supported implementation of investments in the country’s various sectors, with the meeting also pointing out cooperation in the tourism and airline market as “priority directions”.

Kvrivishvili noted the number of passengers carried by direct regular flights between the two countries in January had reached 47,084, a 17.1 percent increase compared to the same period of last year, and noted four airlines carried out daily flights to Georgia with a frequency of 37 per week.

The officials also attended the signing of a memorandum on Tbilisi Dry Port, a large logistics project in the vicinity of Georgia’s capital city which includes the development of integrated port and logistics facilities. 

The sides said the infrastructure would serve not only Georgia but also the wider region and service container yards with an annual capacity of approximately 200,000 units equivalent to the twenty-foot format and A and B class customs warehouses with a total area of 12,300 square metres.

The project will promote the Middle Corridor, a logistics route connecting Central Asia and China to Europe via the South Caucasus, and encourage other investors to invest in the transport and logistics sector of Georgia.

The Ministry added the Georgian official’s visit also included meetings with representatives of government agencies and private companies, as well as trips to the free economic zone of Abu Dhabi and the Khalifa Port.