Page 25 - GEORptJul18

Georgia on charm offensive in UAE in pursuit of FTA with Gulf Cooperation Council
Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and the Georgian prime minister’s special representative to Russia, Zurab Abashidze, in Prague on May 24, according to a statement from the Russian foreign ministry.
The two officials discussed implementation of the 2011 agreement between their governments on customs administration and monitoring of trade in goods, the statement said.
Karasin reportedly said after the meeting that an agreement to create three trade corridors, including via Abkhazia and South Ossetia, will move ahead. The Russian foreign ministry statement reported positive developments in economic cooperation between the two states in the first quarter of 2018, with mutual trade turnover rising to $337mn.
Georgia is seeking to establish a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the six-country economic bloc encompassing Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, Georgian Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili told his Emirati counterpart, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansuri, during a bilateral visit to the UAE on April 10, according to agenda.ge.
The small South Caucasus country of only 3.7mn has been successful at promoting foreign trade and investment with multiple partners in recent years, having signed an association agreement with the EU, a free trade agreement with Turkey, and one with China. While trade with GCC countries remains low, the number of tourists from these countries coming to Georgia has been on the rise in recent years, thanks to Tbilisi's efforts in self-promotion and Georgia's combination of affordability, culture, nature, history, openness, and culinary delights.
"We talked about the increase in trade volume between the two countries, as well as the number of investments that come from the United Arab Emirates," Kumsishvili said after the meeting."As of today, this figure exceeds $800 million and we hope that investments will continue in the future. The number of visitors transported by air companies - Fly Dubai and Air Arabia - which brought more than 325,000 visitors to Georgia last year - is also of the utmost importance”, he added.
5.3 FDI
Georgia - FDI 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Q1
FDI ($ mn)
845.1 1,130.3 1,022.9 1,020.6 1,817.9 1,652.5 1,602.9 1,861.9 279.3
FDI (% of GDP)
7.47 7.51 5.25 5.93 10.84 11.89 11.27 11.88 /
Source: Geostat, CEIC
FDI contracts in Georgia in Q1
Georgia attracted $279.3mn worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first quarter of 2018, preliminary data from statistics office Geostat shows. This represented a decline of 32.9% compared to the same period of 2017, while the figure for Q4 2017 was a considerably higher $497.4.
The main reasons for the y/y fall in FDI are the transferring of ownership in
25 GEORGIA Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com