Entrepreneurship Week Starts in Georgia
By Nino Gugunishvili
Along with 160 countries worldwide, Georgia is participating in the Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Officially launched Monday at the Technology Park (Tech Park), Tbilisi, the ceremony was opened by Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia, and Ian Kelly, US Ambassador to Georgia.
The Global Entrepreneurship Week in Georgia seeks to promote entrepreneurial spirit in the younger generations, engaging them in more and more activities. The initiative attempts to address the need for the structural transformation of the economy, creating new possibilities to motivate young entrepreneurs in the country.
The project is supported by the G4G Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Embassy in Georgia.
As Prime Minister noted, “It is very important to develop enrepreneurial thinking and keep in tune with modern ideas and contemporary dynamics.”
Kvirikashvili also emphasized the importance of crowd-funding practices for Georgia, a concept that is relatively new to the country. “We have to show our solidarity for innovative ideas to move our country forward. It is important to stimulate young Georgian entrepreneurs and to get them involved and get financial assistance for their projects,” he added, giving examples of successfully crowd-funded projects globally, such as the new generation smartwatches which received USD 12 million through crowd financing, and the Flow Hive that, through internet crowd financing, was able to gain USD 13,200,000. Flow Hive enables the extraction of honey without harming the bees.
The Prime Minister then expressed his hope that many new projects and iniatives will be implemented.
A number of successfully financed start-up projects were introduced at the opening of Global Entrepreneurship Week, including Quick Cash (platform for financial assessment for SMEs), David OS (a universal medical records system based on block chain technology), and Tamashobana which produces traditional Georgian games.
The Global Entrepreneurship Week will go on until November 20 covering the topics of women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship and innovation development policy, agricultural entrepreneurship and startups.