2017-11-10
Georgia is a stable democracy. We have the rule of law in this country; there is an open market in Georgia, where protection applies to the rights of exporters. There is a liberal economy in the country, and the geographic location of the country is strategic, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili emphasized in his speech at today's meeting with the BOG Group's investors.
The Prime Minister emphasized support of business as one of the Georgian Government's and his personal key priorities.
"This narrative is strengthened by stable economic growth numbers, institutional strength, and the ability and ambitions of the Government to pursue one of the heaviest reform agendas, and also a prudent macroeconomic environment.
We can proudly say that Georgia is a top performer in this region and beyond, with its excellent results of the reforms we are pursuing. Of course, we need to also mention that Georgia came out of the crisis and external shock we had just a couple of years ago and showed the best resilience in this region, which was also evidenced by the IMF review mission just recently in Georgia.
The growth rate in Georgia, according to nine months' numbers, is 4.7%. Georgia's diversified investment basis creates a lot of opportunities for new investments," the Prime Minister said.
Giorgi Kvirikashvili also spoke about the trend of growing tourist numbers and emphasized that, given the statistics of the first ten months of 2017, their number already exceeds the overall statistics in 2016. This year, the number of tourists will be close to 7,000,000, which, according to the Prime Minister, offers the hospitality sector ample opportunity.
"Because of the geographic location and growing investments in infrastructure, there are excellent opportunities for logistics, transport, communications, IT industry, energy sector, and agriculture because of the growth of tourist numbers. This year we are going to finish with around 20% growth in the visitors' numbers, but the number of visitors who stay for more than 24 hours is growing more than 30%, which is very important for the hospitality sector. We have one of the lightest tax burden in the world, and Georgia's business administration is one of the most business-friendly not only in this region but in the world" the Prime Minister stated.
During the meeting celebrating the BOG Group's Investors Day, Giorgi Kvirikashvili described in detail the Government's four-point reform agenda and Georgia's leading positions in international rankings.
Prime Minister's Press Office