City Hall to Establish Contacts with Business Association

Representatives of Tbilisi City Hall organized a meeting with the Business Association of Georgia on April 1. At the meeting, the Mayor of Tbilisi, Davit Narmania, spoke about the current and future plans of the local government. Business representatives also focused on the top problems and challenges that are important for business development as well as for the city. Mayor Narmania emphasized the importance of dialogue with the business community and said that such meetings will now be held quarterly.

One of the priority issues at the meeting was the matter of administrative and bureaucratic delays, with business sector representatives highlighting the length of time paperwork takes to be processed. Mayor Narmania noted that the acceleration of the process of issuing licenses and permits is quite possible and that City Hall has every intention of working on this.

President of the Business Association of Georgia Giorgi Chirakadze noted that there are many issues to discuss and that it is important for the business community to know the position of City Hall. “Today we discussed important problems such as transport, infrastructure and more. We were glad to see the interest of City Hall and look forward to their prompt response. It is important for us that there are such meetings and dialogue with the authorities,” Chirakadze said.

In particular, Mayor Narmania spoke about a number of projects, including bus stops which can be used to attract advertisers; underground parking; new land for hotel construction and the current state of the city urbanization Master Plan. “Moreover, it is very important to hear business representatives’ views, attitudes and opinions. They can be very helpful to us. We want to be more business-oriented,” the Mayor said.

Special attention was paid to construction issues in the city. This was especially true for temporarily ceased projects, which, in the opinion of the business sector, cause a lot of damage to the tourism potential of Tbilisi. Representatives of City Hall suggested that this problem could be solved without waiting for the Master Plan.

In addition, for better communication between the Business Association of Georgia and Tbilisi City Hall, Nodar Chichinadze has been appointed to the post of contact person between the two bodies. Thus, when a problem occurs, the business representatives will not have to wait for a quarterly meeting with the City Hall for the problems to be dealt with.

Eka Karsaulidze