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After opening the office, the company will study the country's environment further prior to making decisions on investing and building plants. “Guangzhou Automobile Group is China's leading carmaker with more than 84,000 employees. The group manufactures passenger cars and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, and auto parts. It is also engaged in the areas of finance and insurance. The group's fixed capital exceeds 18 billion USD,” the PM’s press office said.
9.1.3 Transport sector news
The European Commission and the World Bank have announced the development of a new Indicative trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) Investment Action Plan. It identifies priority projects in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Georgia will receive €3.5bn of the programme’s €13bn, Georgia Today reported , quoting government officials.
“This is an important decision since Georgia’s integration into European structures is the main priority of our foreign policy... We welcome this move,” the Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs David Zalkaliani stated
The programme is aimed at covering almost 100 projects involving investments of almost €13bn by 2030. It foresee a total of 4,800 kilometres of road and rail, six ports, and 11 logistics centres.
The agreement on the maps extending the TEN-T to the Eastern partnership countries entered into force on 9 January.
“The completion of the Indicative TEN-T Investment Action Plan is a joint commitment to deliver tangible results for citizens across the region. The Plan will assist decision-makers in prioritising strategic investments in transport infrastructure with the aim of completing the TEN-T network defined as one of the 20 deliverables for 2020 in the Joint Declaration of the last Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels,” EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy Johannes Hahn said.
“Enhanced transport connectivity both within the Eastern Partnership region, and between the Eastern Partnership region and the EU has the potential to bolster economic growth and create job opportunities. The Plan shall also serve to highlight the importance of road safety as well as digital solutions in new projects, and to align design standards with current EU practices,” added EU Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc.
Passenger traffic at Georgia’s three international airports rose 23% y/y during January-October, the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency has reported. A 28% y/y increase in the number of tourists visiting Georgia to more than 8mn was the major driver. The increases amount to a gain when it comes to tackling the country’s wide current account that stands at around 10% of GDP.
Georgia was ranked in fourth position among the world’s fastest-growing tourism destinations in the World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO’s) 2017 report .
The passenger traffic figure covers Georgia’s three main airports: Tbilisi Shota Rustaveli International Airport, Batumi International Airport and Kutaisi David Aghmashenebeli International Airport.
Kutaisi International Airport saw the greatest expansion: 39% to 512,386 passengers. That most likely followed the launching of routes to popular destinations like Berlin and London by low-cost airline Wizz Air.
With 3,286,344 passengers, Tbilisi International Airport remained the largest
37 GEORGIA Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com