COVID-19 pandemic will have serious consequences on the Georgian economy in general and on the tourism sector in particular.
ICC commends the timely, professional and efficient work of government, both in limiting the spread of COVID-19, and in offering an economic stimulus package to help businesses affected by the pandemic weather the storm.
One of the components of the stimulus package is the subsidy by government of bank loans interests for about 2000 hotels over a period of six months. Although all hotels in Georgia are equally suffering from the economic downturn, some hotels don’t have loans to pay to their banks, and will therefore not benefit from this particular government assistance.
ICC believes that all hotels should be treated equally not to favor some at the expense of others, and therefore each hotel should be given the choice to decide individually whether they want government to subsidize the interests on their bank loans for six months or whether to have government cover their utility bills for a period of three months. By so doing government would create a leveled playing field for all hotel operators in the country.
Government could easily offset the amounts of the utility bills due to the power and gas companies by deducting those amounts from the companies’ tax liabilities to Budget.
The International Chamber of Commerce encourages government to agree on this proposal to help all hotels equally without putting any of them at disadvantage.
ICC Georgia is the largest and most vocal global Business Association in the country; it includes over 350 corporate and youth members and 28 business associations. The International Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in the world that includes over 6.5 million businesses and chambers of commerce. ICC consults regularly at the global level with the G8, G20, the World Bank, WTO, WCO and the UN.
