Greater Central Asian Countries Discuss Region’s Key Issues in Georgia

Tbilisi hosted the CAMCA (Central Asia-Mongolia-Caucasus-Afghanistan) Regional Forum 2016, organized by the Rumsfeld Foundation in partnership with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Johns Hopkins University on June 17-19. Economic issues were top priority at the Forum.

The CAMCA Regional Forum is a non-political and non-partisan entity established to promote region-wide discussions on means of advancing economic growth and development in Greater Central Asia (Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). It promotes this goal by fostering dialogue and interaction among rising young leaders from various sectors in the 10 countries of the region, as well as with international leaders and stakeholders.

Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, highlighted the most important economic achievements of Georgia throughout recent years. In particular, he noted the development of Anaklia Port in western Georgia, which is aimed at promoting the direction of transport-logistics, the construction of two tunnels in Georgia’s eastern and western parts and the West-East Highway across Georgia.

The PM talked about joint projects with neighboring countries such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project aiming to connect the countries with the European Union. He also named China as one of the most important economic partners, having a great number of projects in Georgia, and pointed to the economic analysis which predicts a 10 percent annual export increase from Georgia to China.

In the framework of the Forum, PM Kvirikashvili met with former US Secretary of Defense and President of the Rumsfeld Foundation, Donald Rumsfeld. “We are in a country that has created an attractive environment for investment, an environment which respects free political systems and free media, as well as having a great anticorruption program,” Rumsfeld said. “If one is engaged in business and thinks where to put investment, he first asks what environment there already is. Georgia has huge potential in this regard.”

Georgia’s course of further development was also discussed at the Presidential Palace, where the President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, hosted Donald Rumsfeld and graduates of his Foundation. “The graduates of the Rumsfeld Foundation play a decisive role in the political, economic and social life of the country. They have made a great contribution to Georgia's orientation to the European family,” said President Margvelashvili.

The Forum gathered 150 delegates of international and regional leaders from 18 countries.

Eka Karsaulidze