Mister President,
Excellences, Mister Prime Minister,
Dear colleagues, participants of the summit,
I greet all of you. It is a great pleasure to visit brotherly Azerbaijan and participate in the 2023 SPECA Economic Forum. I am privileged to address such a distinguished audience today as a guest of honor.
I would like to take this opportunity and express profound gratitude to our host, President Ilham Aliyev, for inviting me as guest of honor, the excellent organization of this forum and warm hospitality in the beautiful city of Baku.
I extend my sincere congratulations on the 25th anniversary of establishment of this program, which has emerged as a unique platform for cross-sectoral collaboration and a framework initiative aimed at achieving the stable and sustainable development in the region.
Azerbaijan is a valued neighbor and strategic partner to Georgia and we are proud that relations between our nations, rooted in the centuries-old friendship, is at the highest possible level.
Dear colleagues, the current geopolitical context has heightened our region's role as an essential transit and logistics hub, facilitating the improvement of transportation and logistics linkages. Given the ever-growing importance of diversifying and expanding East-West trade, the so-called "Middle Corridor" is becoming an interesting alternative to existing routes connecting Europe and Asia. The Middle Corridor serves as the fastest, most cost-effective, and reliable channel for delivering cargos and hydrocarbon resources across the Eurasian continent. Therefore, together with our Azerbaijani and Kazakh colleagues, we are actively working to eliminate gridlocks across the corridor and focus our efforts on improving infrastructure, enhancing throughput capacity, simplifying procedures, and applying unified tariffs. Facilitating connectivity is of strategic importance for us. Our country has a very interesting strategic geographic location and attractive business environment. Georgia already plays a significant role in East-West connectivity and its overall positive economic, business, and institutional outlook complements our goal of securing stability and prosperity in the entire region.
My Government is heavily investing in large-scale projects in order to facilitate regional commerce. In recent years, significant investments were made to upgrade the country's roads, railways and airports, as well as to develop new transport infrastructure projects.
We are now working on the implementation of a new project, which envisages the development of a new port in Anaklia. Eventually, the Anaklia Deep Sea Port is expected to have the capacity to handle 100 million containers (TEUs) each year.
We are also working jointly on the Black Sea Submarine Electricity Transmission Cable, which we launched and on which we the leaders of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Hungary and Romania signed an agreement in December 2022 in Bucharest. We believe that this project will be very interesting not only for our region, but also for Europe.
I also would like to emphasize that, in the past five years, the throughput capacity of Georgia's railroad has grown by 48%. Upon completion of the Railway Modernization Project by the end of 2024, the throughput capacity of Georgian railways will double to make up 48 million tons a year.
We are also actively cooperating with Azerbaijan on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, which will be completed in 2024.
The Government also invests heavily in the East-West highway project.
We are also working on the development of a new airport that will have the potential to become a regional aviation transit center.
Dear colleagues, as you know, Georgia has also been a reliable partner for the transit of energy resources for many years. It plays a significant role in the supply chain, ensuring uninterrupted and secure transit of crude oil and natural gas via South Caucasus. In addition, I would like to emphasize that we are really interested in deepening and shaping even stronger relations with the Central Asian Region, and tapping into full potential.
I would like to underline that the dynamic of the recent years is very positive. Last year, our trade turnover with Azerbaijan grew by 16%. In the first 10 months of this year, it also grew by 16% to make up 1 billion 230 million USD. Also, last year, our trade turnover with all five Central Asian countries grew by 50%. In the first 10 months of this year, it grew by 150% to make up 1 billion 400 million USD.
Dear colleagues, the essential goals of our Government is to maintain peace, ensure stability, and facilitate economic development. Regardless of complex security issues regionally and globally marked by instability, but thanks to our pragmatic foreign and prudent economic policies, our Government has managed to achieve these goals.
Georgia's economy has been growing by 10% in recent years, and in 2021 and 2022, the country's economy grew with a double-digit rate of over 10%. This positive-growth trend has been maintained in 2023, with an average economic growth rate of 7% in the period so far, along with inflation rate less than 1%.
With the figure of more than USD 8,000 expected at the end of 2023, in just three years, GDP per capita has nearly doubled. Also, GDP per capita is expected to be over 8,500 USD in 2024.
In addition, I would like to share the following statistics: Our official reserve assets reached a historic high in July this year. The unemployment and poverty rates are also at historical lows.
We actively continue pursuing EU integration. Over the past 10 years, we signed the Association Agreement, FTA with Europe, and visa-free travel was established with the EU. Last year, we received the European perspective, and we are expecting the candidate status in December.
I also want to point out that Georgia, as a country with growing economic potential, is a reliable and trusted partner. So far, we have signed FTAs with the EU, China, CIS countries, the UK, the UAE, and Turkey. Overall, these FTAs offer investors in Georgia access to a marked of 2.3 billion.
I also would like to emphasize that, in July 2024, I had a very successful visit to China, and we advanced our relations to a new level, signing the Agreement on Strategic Partnership, which offers new opportunities not only to our countries, but also the entire region.
Also, we are the only country in the region to enjoy an FTA with both China and the EU.
Dear colleagues, I would like to inform you that Georgia is interested in further bolstering our partnership and cooperation with Azerbaijan, the Central Asian Region, which will bring greater prosperity and stability to our countries.
Once again, I express my gratitude to President Aliyev for hosting today's important event and wish you continued success in future endeavors.
Thank you very much!