Giorgi Tkhelidze, Deputy General Director of TBC Bank, spoke to Forbes Week about the challenges facing by TBC Bank and the business sector amid the pandemic. As Tkhelidze points out, uncertainty and rapid change of the reality are the main challenges for the private sector in the current situation.
"The business has the very important needs; these are clarity and stability. When there is clarity and stability, the next question for the business is to adapt to the existing reality and formulate a formula for their success. The biggest challenge is when there is uncertainty and reality changes very rapidly”, said Giorgi Tkhelidze.
The Deputy General Director of TBC Bank also spoke about the expected economic growth rate and noted that if the country does not announce a new COVID-related lockdown, then reaching 4% growth is realistic, but it needs acceleration of vaccination pace and to follow the safety rules.
"In order to complete the vaccination late this year, it is necessary to rollout the COVID jabs as soon as possible and a public campaign on vaccination is necessary to overcome this crisis. On the other hand, we should try our best to avoid a third long-term lockout and in this case, reaching 4% growth is realistic. Therefore, adaptation, protection and rapid vaccination are very important, "- said Giorgi Tkhelidze.
Speaking about the results of TBC Bank, Giorgi Tkhelidze said that despite the pandemic, the volume of non-performing loans (NPLs) increased by only 2 percentage points to 4.7%, which was due to their close communication with the customer and restructuring.
