The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, visited Georgia on 5 and 6 September to discuss ways of further strengthening the country’s economic performance.
Sir Suma met Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and other top government ministers and was a guest at a session of the Investors’ Council, a platform for public-private dialogue set up by the Georgian Government and EBRD in May 2015.
The Investors’ Council has assumed a leading role in improving the investment climate in Georgia, promoting private sector development and good governance.
EBRD investing over EUR 250m in Georgia in 2017
“We could sense a joint determination to work towards further improving Georgia’s economic performance,” said Sir Suma of the meetings. “This is also illustrated in the EBRD’s high volume of investments. Already the country is one of our largest partners in terms of GDP per capita and, after a record year in 2016, with close to EUR 250 million of new investments, we are on course towards an even stronger result this year.”
The EBRD’s priorities for Georgia, defined in its December 2016 country strategy, are:
• supporting competitiveness of the private sector
• developing the local capital market, and
• regional expansion of local companies
The Bank, which to date has invested a total of EUR 2.8 billion in Georgia, is a major partner in delivering EU4Business programmes, co-funded by the EU, in the six Eastern Partnership countries.
