Produce in Georgia Assists Hundreds of Enterprises in First Year
One year has passed since the Georgian Government launched its Produce in Georgia program to encourage new entrepreneurs and stimulate local production.
Today, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Kvirikashvili summed up the achievements the program so far at the exhibition center Expo-Georgia.
The Prime Minister highlighted that, since launching the program, more than 130 enterprises had been funded, and over 600 were revamped. During the last year, 90 new projects were undertaken under the program with a collective investment of $252 million, providing jobs for more than 5,000 people.
“Today, more than 130 enterprises are funded and more than 600 enterprises are further supported. We invested a total of 900 million GEL during the past two years in the agriculture sector,” the Prime Minister said.
Garibashvili announced that the Georgian Government had set a goal to gradually replace imported agricultural goods with locally produced alternatives.
“I had conversations with the leaders of our neighboring countries who have successfully promoted local production and development programs. They have followed the path for years and have good results. They have strong agricultural and industry sectors. Establishing such enterprises creates jobs for many Georgian people. This is one of the main tasks of our Government,” Garibashvili said.
“I want to emphasize that we are not against imports, on the contrary, we welcome foreign companies to Georgia, but for us the main concern is the development of local industry and creation of new jobs for our citizens," he added.
The Georgian PM stated that government officials are going to hold talks with persons who have obtained licenses to extract the country’s natural resources.
"The waste of our natural resources has been taking place over the past twenty years. As a consequence we have hundreds of licenses issued for unique resources, which, unfortunately, are not used. This happens because these people seized the state resources through different persons’ lobbying efforts in its time and these resources are unused today. This is a crime. No one has the right not to use the country's resources and reserve them only for personal interests,” Garibashvili said.
Garibashvili added that it was shameful that so many of Georgia’s citizens were living in poverty.
“We can start to implement projects together with enterprises. Produce in Georgia and cheap Agro-Credit programs provided by the state are everything an entrepreneur could ask for. Within the program entrepreneurs has to pay only 1-2 percent of a loan, as we cover 10 percent of it,” Garibashvili said.
The Prime Minister also announced that several components will be added to the programs for their further development.
Tamar Svanidze