“Georgia is attractive country for international investments with open market and liberal economy, strategically located between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East”- mentioned by Mr. David Khutsishvili, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development

Mr. Khutsishvili stressed that as strategic Partner of USA and Associated member of EU, Georgia has free trade with EU, CIS countries and Turkey, has concluded negotiations with EFTA (European Free Trade Association) and started negotiations for Free Trade Agreement with China. Georgia’s business-friendly policies, strong regional and overseas trade relations, strategic location at the crossroads between Europe and Asia have transformed the country into the new regional frontier for investment opportunities. 

During his speech, Mr. Khutsishvili noted that it is of outmost importance to conduct transportation of additional cargo flows from China to Europe through Georgia. Future policies and strategies of Georgia are targeted at strengthening of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Transport Corridor and development of the New Silk Road together with TRACECA member countries. For the moment, trade between China and EU exceeds 600 bln USD and there is a huge potential for New Silk Road Corridor to capture significant volumes from various alternative routes. 

In addition, within 2015-2016 railway freight transportations from China in the direction of Georgia were carried out in several occasions. As a result of fruitful cooperation among Georgian and other TRACECA member countries’ and Chinese rail administrations and logistics companies, through tariffs were introduced for the whole corridor, that created an opportunity for the freight to move from China to the Black Sea ports of Georgia without delay in the shortest possible time. The transit time has been reduced from 40-45 to 7-9 days compared to the carriage by sea. 

Another successful example of regional cooperation for development of the New Silk Road corridor is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars New Railway Line project, which shall connect Azerbaijan, Georgian and Turkish railways and will open a window onto Europe. The implementation of the project will allow 45% faster delivery of containers, freight and passenger traffic from Asia to Europe. Major construction works are finished at prioritized sites of the railway section on the Georgian territory, thus allowing and facilitating cargo transportation at the first stage. 

Government of Georgia is also carrying out large-scale infrastructural projects such as Anaklia New Deep Water Black Sea Port, Railway Modernization Project and East-West Highway Construction and Development of Modern Logistics Centres. Moreover, in order to facilitate increased participation of private sector, Government of Georgia with the technical assistance of EBRD has developed Policy Document on Public Private Partnership (PPP). 

Mr. Khutsishvili underlined that one of the main priority for the Government of Georgia nowadays is improvement of road safety standards in the country. In this regards by technical assistance of the World Bank, Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan has been developed and to be approved by the Government in the nearest future. 

It was also emphasized that adoption of the TRACECA Strategy and implementation of the Action Plan will improve coordination mechanisms, which is a key element for ensuring progress in road safety.

Full speech of Mr. Khutsishvili are available for download here.