Finance Minister highlights ADB as “reliable partner” for Georgia

Georgian Finance Minister and Governor for the country in the Asian Development Bank, Lasha Khutsishvili on Saturday highlighted the ADB as a “reliable partner” for Georgia, in his speech at the opening ceremony of the Bank’s 57th annual meeting in Tbilisi.

Since joining the ADB in 2007, Georgia has made “significant progress”, Khutsishvili said and emphasised that the country “has just joined the Asian Development Fund in an effort to repay back with gratefulness the support that we received in our early days of cooperation”.

He noted the slogan of the 57th Annual Meeting - ‘Bridge to the Future’ framed the “spirit of the global path” to be taken by the Governments and MDBs to address the “unprecedented challenges of the modern world” related to geopolitics, climate change, equality and other sustainable development goals, as well as Georgia’s aspiration to position itself as “a meeting point of Europe and Asia”.

We are hosting this event as an European Union membership candidate country, which is a great milestone overcome on the path of returning to the roots of European family since regaining the Independence. We are hosting this event [annual meeting]
cherishing and valuing highly our role in the middle corridor connectivity”, the Minister emphasised.

Khutsishvili stressed the “utmost important” role of ADB and other MDBs in navigating through “the turbulences of post-pandemic and ongoing geopolitical crisis”, adding the cooperation with the Bank and its support “has made significant change” in the countries of operation.

Our policy priorities in this challenging environment continues to be ensuring macroeconomic stability and mitigating negative impacts for long-term sustainability. While being prudent and committed to fiscal consolidation, we are oriented to increased capital investments to unlock potentials, introduce structural reforms and ensure enhanced regional connectivity”, he pointed out.

In his speech, the Minister highlighted the need for “close cooperation with partners” and “strong regional synergy” to create a “bridge to the bright future”.