Page 28 - GEORptNov19

Azerbaijan: investments in the pipeline infrastructure to export Azerbaijani oil and natural gas to the West.
Foreign investors have not suddenly decided that Georgia is unappealing. Instead, the drop can be attributed in part to the completion of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the end to expansion efforts on the South Caucasus gas pipeline, and the completion of other foreign-funded infrastructure projects such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. According to Georgia’s investment promotion agency, TANAP brought $2bn to the country in the mid-2010s. It should not come as a surprise that FDI dropped sharply when the pipeline was completed.
Despite domestic political upheavals and tensions with neighbouring Russia, Georgia’s economic story has been one of unabashed success in recent years, far out-performing its neighbours.
Both internal and external balances (the budget and current-account deficit) have also improved in recent years. So the fall in FDI should not be cause for alarm. Foreign investment helps a country plug domestic funding gaps. But as long as a country is able to fund infrastructure priorities – the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure says, for example, it will spend $750mn on 1,400 projects this year – it should not matter whether this is done with money sourced abroad or domestically.
28​ GEORGIA Country Report​ November 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com