Finance Minister to Bloomberg: Gov’t Aims to Make Georgia Regional Hub

In an interview with Bloomberg, Georgia’s Finance Minister, Mamuka Bakhtadze underlined that the Georgian Government’s main strategy is to make the country a regional hub in terms of finance, logistics, tourism and trade.

The Minister spoke about the progress Georgia has achieved recently, after some important reforms were carried out.

According to Bakhtadze, Georgia was named among the top 5 countries in terms of budget transparency; adding it was ranked 9th place by World Bank in ease of doing business, and also took 9th position in terms of taxation prices.

He also spoke about cooperation with the United States, saying that Georgia is becoming a distinguished country in the region.

“All these achievements help us to integrate Georgia with the world economy and the free trade regimes with the EU, CIS countries, China and Turkey, help us a lot in this respect,” he added.

Bakhtadze noted that in 2017, Georgia’s economic growth reached nearly 5%, adding this year it will far exceed that.

“According to the International Monetary Fund, during the next three years, Georgia will be the leader in terms of the economic growth in the region,” he added.

The Minister said the fluctuation of the national currency (GEL) is one of the biggest challenges for the Georgian economy, which is partially related to the high rate of dollarization. 

“We have a comprehensive and long-term plan to respond to this challenge. If you look at the currencies of our region, you will see that the Lari is one of the most stable currencies. Considering the policy, which implies a reduction in the level of dollarization in the economy, we have an expectation that the fluctuations will be significantly lower,” Bakhtadze told Francine Lacqua and Tom Keene on "Bloomberg Surveillance."

By Thea Morrison