Georgian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili participated in the presentation of the Invest In Georgia 2020-2030 report.
In his speech, Levan Davitashvili evaluated the work done by the Enterprise Georgia agency in the direction of attracting investments and generally spoke about the picture and prospects in the country in this regard.
"Enterprise Georgia investment direction was really successful, and the 2020-2023 strategy was really result-oriented. One of our priority directions is attracting investments. In general, direct foreign investments for economic development and economic transformation have a special role in Georgia's economy," said the Vice Prime Minister.
According to the Ministry, the presentation of Invest in Georgia's 2020-2023 report was presented by the director of the Enterprise Georgia agency, Mikheil Khidureli. The event was attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Ilia Darchiashvili, Minister of Finance Lasha Khutsishvili, members of Parliament, representatives of the diplomatic corps, international organizations and investment and business sectors.
According to Levan Davitashvili, last year Georgia had a record level in terms of attracting foreign direct investments - in 2022 their volume amounted to USD 2.098 billion. According to the Minister of Economy, it is even more important that this positive dynamic continues in 2023 - according to the data of the first two quarters, the volume of foreign investments has already exceeded USD 1 billion.
In addition, according to Levan Davitashvili, the geography, both the sectoral picture and the geography of foreign investments, was diverse.
"Despite a lot of speculation, the geography of our investments is quite diverse and it is not connected to one country. Up to 50% of direct foreign investments, i.e. almost half, come from EU countries, followed by the United States of America and the Persian Gulf countries. Of course, this is the result of a deliberate policy, as well as the merit of the Invest in Georgia team. Accordingly, we can assess whether the investment activity of the Ministry of Economy and the implementation of the investment strategy for 2020-2023 was successful," said Levan Davitashvili.
According to the Minister of Economy, the fact that the largest international corporations have started operating in Georgia, such as one of the leading chemical production companies Indorama, large energy companies - TEPCO, MASDAR and others, shows the effectiveness of the work done in terms of attracting investments.
According to Levan Davitashvili, several large companies are also in the process of making decisions.
"It's not just economic growth, it's not just numbers and results, it's direct employment and new jobs. Therefore, in this regard, the role of investments is very large and important. In recent years, two new sectors have been formed in Georgia - IT and business process outsourcing (BPO), which are important employers today," noted Levan Davitashvili.
According to the prediction of the Vice Prime Minister, the positive dynamics in terms of attracting direct foreign investments in Georgia will continue in the future as well. "Our goal is to maintain these indicators for several years," said Levan Davitashvili.
