On 6 July, Georgia’s Economy Minister Natia Turnava presented the 10-year economic development strategy which covers 12 major areas, ranging from small business empowerment and investment attraction, to specific development policies and quantitative indicators in each key area that the country should achieve by 2025 and 2030, reported agenda.ge.

Turnava projected that Georgian economic growth rate would reach 8% in 2021 taking into account “unprecedented” growth in April and in May. “This means that we will completely reverse last year’s drop of -6.2% and move on to absolute growth. Then in 2025 and in 2030 we will continue to maintain average economic growth of 5-5.2%, which will strengthen our status as a regional leader in terms of economic growth,” she highlighted. Turnava also said that the main task of the government is to reduce the poverty rate to 15% in 2025 and less than 10% in 2030.

To achieve this goal, Turnava highlighted that in the next five years Georgian exports would double and self-sufficiency increased by at least 20% under the programme “Produce in Georgia.” As part of this new programme 50 fields of the Georgian economy were identified to have the potential of export growth and import replacement on the local market. These 50 fields were united under the following areas: 1) manufacture of pharmaceutical products; 2) chemical production; 3) manufacture of some building materials; 4) production of primary products of metal, plastic, rubber and glass; 5) textile industry and footwear manufacturing; 6) manufacture of electrical installations and components; 7) production of animal feed and feed mantles; 8) manufacture of auto parts and other vehicles or parts; 9) manufacture of medical instruments; 10) furniture production; 11) marine fishing; and 12) software production. The 12 branches will receive the following state support: 1) loan co-financing: refinancing rate minus 5%; 2) loan guarantee: 60% of the loan amount; 3) grant: 15% of the loan (not more than 500,000 lari); 4) duration: full term of the loan; 5) loan amount: 50,000-10 million lari.

Turnava also presented two new government programs to foster the accomplishment of the 10-year plan, namely the “Business Universal” and “Development of Agro and Eco Tourism.” The goal of the first programme is to increase the financial availability of business loans for the maximum number of business entities with the same terms as the “Produce in Georgia” programme with the addition that the number of allowed economic activities could reach up to 360. The “Business Universal” programme will cover all areas except for the mining industry, energy, trade, agriculture, financial and real estate activities, utility services, and construction. The second programme will finance local and international info-tours, staff training and will provide funding for the participation in tourism exhibitions under the same terms.

She said that once all the programmes are launched and the implementation of the 10-year strategy starts the first results would be noticeable in about two or three years. The minister said that in three years there would be: 1) 1,350 financed small and medium-sized businesses; 2) 2.51 billion lari of private investment; 3) 100,000 employed people; 4) access to 1.60 billion lari of loans and 5) 366 million lari in the budget of the project.