The International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia did not attend the meeting of the Investors Council under the Prime Minister this week.

The reason stated by the ICC was the last-minute removal from the agenda of the issue regarding the arbitrary cancellation/confiscation of residency permits by the Security Services, that according to ICC, for years now has been the number one impediment to foreign investment in Georgia.

ICC stated that foreign investments in Georgia have been in total stagnation since 2013 due to the unfriendly attitude of the government towards foreign investors; since years now, the Georgian Security Services have been systematically denying residency permits to a multitude of foreign investors, canceling their residency permits arbitrary without any justified reason, after those investors would had invested in the country, which compelled many of them to leave the country, abandoning their investments behind them.

According to the ICC, this practice has gained Georgia a terrible reputation internationally. The International Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in the world that includes over 46 million businesses and 12,000 chambers of commerce. ICC consults regularly at the global level with the G7, G20, the World Bank, WTO, WCO and the UN.

 Fady Asly - President, ICC

#TheCheckpoints - 12.06.2022