On November 9, 2010 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 41 items.
Before commencing the meeting, Nika Gilauri, the Premier of Georgia, emphasized on several issues.
We suggest the Prime-Minister's speech:
"I'd like to greet you.
Before discussing the issues of the meeting of the government, I'd like to inform the society and members of the government about the statistical information in connection with ten-month -data and macro parameters as of 2010. We have already processed the information as of October. The society and members of the government have certain interest with this regard.
According to the ten-month-data, if we compare 2009 to 2010, it's worth noting that the number of visitors to Georgia increased by 38%. This is very important fact and means that tourism sector is a robust growing industry in Georgia. We suppose that the number of visitors to Georgia will exceed two million people this year, which is the record figure for our country.
Also I want to tell you that the transactions at real estate market and in terms of vehicle registration have been increased, for instance, the number of real estate registration has been increased, according to ten-month data, vehicles registrations have been increased from 23% to 33%.
I want to inform about the news which points to stability of macroeconomic parameters and economic strength as well. These are the export indicators. The export of products from Georgia increased by 33%. It's worth noting that this growth is caused not only by price increasing but the more various products are being exported from Georgia. During the last ten months, we've made export to more countries than earlier.
It's important that vehicles are the first re-export productions. Georgia has become the centre of trading and many vehicle companies in order to import and store vehicles in Georgia and then export to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Central Asia countries. This is the important trend and is hugely beneficial to the economy of our country.
We want the above-said businesspersons' conduct their activities in an easier manner. So far zero- customs clearance consisted of 20 days and we want to increase this period up to 45 days. Today we are going to discuss this subject at the meeting of the government as well. We want to introduce innovation to the entrepreneurs conducting their business in this sector. They will be able to manage their businesses in a cheaper and easier manner. They will be more competitive in this region. We hope that our country will become the regional centre not only in vehicle sector but in other industries as well. The businesspersons and international investors will establish their regional representative centers in Georgia and then increase their business activities in Caucasus and Central Asia countries. We are working to many investors in this view. Our business trip to China and India was devoted to this goal. We had meetings with such investors.
I'd like to give brief information about visit to Brussels. We convened energy conference in Brussels several days ago. It is important to note that EU nominated Georgia as its strategic partner in energy sector for the first time. Georgia represented as the potential electricity supplier for EU countries for the first time. We exported electricity to Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia so far. Now there is talk about to export electricity to European Union Countries through Turkey and EU companies were interested in building hydropower stations in Georgia. Certain agreement shall be made and signed with this regard.
It was the core direction among the issues discussed during the conference in Brussels. One of the main issues also was Georgia as transit country in gas supply for European Union. Several projects were discussed in this view, and EU is working seriously on the projects thereof. In the strategy of European Union Georgia was considered as one of the main partners as gas transit country. Consequently, we are looking forward to new initiatives from EU with regard to liquid gas and white stream projects."
Prime Minister's Press Service