During the first eight months of this year, Georgia received an FDI of USD 79 million from the Netherlands, representing a 30.8% growth year on year, with the energy sector leading the race. During the second quarter of 2022, Georgia received an FDI of USD 44.7 million, thus placing the Western European nation in second place in the rankings.
What drives the relations between the Netherlands and Georgia? What are the priorities of the Dutch Embassy? These are some of the questions, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Georgia, Her Excellency Maaike van Koldam has discussed in a conversation with BMG.
Madam Ambassador, let's begin with the broadest question possible. It's been more than six years since your term as ambassador to Georgia began. During this time, you experienced both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. How could you summarize these three years?
Well, as you say, it's been very hectic. Lots of things have happened in these three years. So one summary would be: “Never a dull moment”. There was the COVID period, which was very difficult for everybody in Georgia, for the people in the Netherlands, but we felt in very safe hands in Georgia. We were taken care of. I have great admiration how your medical staff did their utmost to protect people. During the pandemic, of course, I could not travel. I was limited in my movement, but since then I've been traveling a lot. I'm meeting far more people and getting to know the regions of Georgia, and that is really a big privilege. And to sum it up, we actually kept doing what we always do. We support civil society. We continued our consular services and we continue to support businesses. I'm really pleased to be here today to talk about the business side of it and any other element that you would like to discuss.
Apart from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, there were rather series of events that happened in Georgia related to Georgia's European integration and the failure to receive the EU candidacy status; instead, we received a 12 point recommendation letter from the EU. Several months have passed since then. How would you rate the government's job ever since we received the document? What is going on and what more needs to be done?
Well, you mentioned the war in Ukraine, and I want to, in relation to my first question, mention that the war, of course, a huge impact on the whole world. It’s a horrible war after Russia's invasion and it’s just an utter tragedy what's happening also today. We totally condemn that. On the European perspective, that is a milestone. Georgia has a European perspective and that is a big step. And the 12 recommendations shall be taken very seriously. I think everybody is working hard on that. And what we would like to do is, of course, is to continue supporting Georgia in acting upon these 12 recommendations. Then it's important to have the legislation in place to implement them, but also to make it an inclusive process and to involve, for instance, civil society organisations and to make it a cross-party joint interest, because I think that's in the best interest of Georgia.
Would you say that the steps need to be taken faster at this point?
It's not up to me to put a time limit on it. It's very important that the steps are taken thoroughly and that it's not just ticking boxes. It consists of various components, as I just mentioned. So I would say the best thing is to do it thoroughly in an inclusive way. Then I really do hope that we will see the progress that can be seen there.
Let's talk about trade relations between our two countries. As I mentioned in my introduction, the Netherlands is a very important strategic partner for Georgia in this regard. Based on your experience and communication with Dutch investors Georgian companies, what are the areas that Dutch investors are most interested in?
Well, obviously agriculture. The Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agricultural expertise and products, not even per capita, but just in absolute terms. Which means we have a huge expertise to share and we're eager to share it. We are sharing it with Georgian farmers and businesses. We do that in many ways. We train farmers, we team up, we learn from each other, and we do that in, for instance, seeds to make a better crop, higher quality food safety. On the implementation of the DCFTA, that's very essential, but also in the dairy industry and in logistics. We can team up. We have a big port in Rotterdam and Georgia, too, has this aspiration to be a regional hub like the Netherlands is. So those are amongst two areas that are very interesting, but also tourism, of course. That's very essential. Hospitality sector. Dutch people love to come to Georgia and I could go on and on, but yes, we are working on all of that.
How would you rate the investment climate here and what could be done to bring more and more Dutch companies and Dutch investors to Georgia?
I think quite a lot of Dutch companies are doing well. What is important for Dutch companies, though, is to feel that their investment is secure and that there is equal level playing field for all companies, meaning that if you have a problem or an obstacle, you can go to a court that looks at it totally independently. For that it is important that judicial reform indeed happens and there's already a lot being done. But I think it's in the recommendations. We’re looking at that.
There is a link to human rights, too. We really appreciate the steps that have been taken in Georgia and very much support that. There was one day last year that was really a black day - the 5th of July. The LGBTQI, the pride, the aggression against media, that was a very black day. Unfortunately, 6th of July was much better. And this year we've had very good pride events and we're very happy to see that and count on that protection to be provided in the years to come. I'm mentioning this because it's a very important topic in our foreign policy and it is also important for investors to see that not only their own staff is safe, but that it's an inclusive climate. I think there is progress and we're eager to keep supporting that.
I should mention what we do see in the financial sector. We have the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank – FMO, that just provided a huge loan agreement with Credo Bank for 100 million Lari to provide loans to small and medium enterprises, youth, and female entrepreneurs. They do that because they trust the financial sector.
There are many, many fields where we team up. I hope to get together to a very good place.
Another agricultural sphere I want to talk to you about this wine production. Just this week you visited the harvest. How acceptive of Georgian wine are the Dutch people and what could we do to increase our exports to to the Netherlands?
That is by far the easiest question of any interview because Dutch people love Georgian wine. It's very famous. I think we should find more of it in our supermarkets. Having just been in Tsinandali at the wine fest, it's just magnificent. You see all these various producers, a huge variety of grapes. But I also met some very young entrepreneurs who think about their product, the packaging, the marketing. That is a great diversity that I think should be known even better to the world.
Based on your communication with the investors, what are the main challenges they are facing in Georgia?
Well, there are a lot of opportunities. There is the ease of doing business, to start a company, a favourable tax climate, and good trade agreements with other countries. Two important elements remain: the judicial reform and political stability. When we talk about politics what is often mentioned is the polarization. That is also why I said: “Never a dull moment”. For someone from a Dutch background… We are slightly different, let's put it that way. But I do see that in spite of polarization, things happen and I really wish that polarization could indeed also be diminished and we could get to business together. But I must say that I have respect for how the country manages to prosper and develop, economically speaking, in spite of these very hard times.
How easy is communication with the governmental agencies for Dutch investors here in Georgia?
You have this great agency Enterprise Georgia. I visited them and they are very, very open to advice companies. There is a very energetic director, too. To have that kind of agency and that information available is very good. And I must say in general, our counterparts at any level, including administration, local, and central government, are very open to us, and that is an important element. I feel very much at home as an ambassador, and I do feel that I can speak to many people and have a listening ear whenever needed. That is really appreciated.
What are your plans for the remainder of this year?
To do everything that I couldn't do in two years of the pandemic. It is such a pleasure to be here, and I want to make the most of it. Not for myself, of course, although I enjoy it, but for the country, for our bilateral relations. So we keep doing what we did and we are going to do it even faster and better. These include our support to civil society, our support to Dutch businesses, not to forget our consular services, our public diplomacy. We try to do cultural events because there are so many highly motivated and energetic counterparts. I can't wait to go out again and work with everybody because it really is a pleasure to work in Georgia.
That's very nice to hear. What are your plans for the next year? Do you expect the situation change a little bit and adjust to it, maybe?
Well, you know, this is may be the hardest question of this interview. Totally opposite to the lovely question on Georgian wine. A lot depends, of course, on the geopolitical context, the war in Ukraine, which I'm quite sure that Ukraine will win. But as I said, in spite of these challenging times, lots of things are continuing.
I intend to do what I did and do it even more and to be open to feedback regarding what we could do even better and to team up in line with these 12 action points to keep supporting Georgia. It has been 30 years of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Georgia. And I couldn't be in a better background than I'm here. So yes, that's also something that we celebrate. We want to be a trusted friend of Georgia.
You definitely are! Madam Ambassador, Georgia found itself in a very difficult situation recently with geopolitics and economy. What would your advice be to the country as a whole? How should we behave in these difficult times? What should we do?
Well, having the European perspective, my advice would indeed be to implement those 12 recommendations, because they, in essence, will help Georgia in being a prosperous democratic country. A lot of that has been reached already. We are part of Team Europe and we are on Georgia's side. Georgia is in constituency group of the Netherlands in World Bank, IMF and EBRD and because of that, we have a lot of activities between our Ministries of Finance. Just last week I was in Parliament because we, the EU, Georgia and the Netherlands have the twinning project aimed at improving and enhancing financial oversight by the Parliament in the budget sector. So we try to be in many, many different fields together.
