FROM THAILAND TO TBILISI: GEORGIAN ELECTRICITY MARITIME SECTOR BEGINS TO DIGITAL NOMADS COME TO MARKET SURGES TOWARDS MAKE WAVES AS GEORGIA GEORGIA GREEN ENERGY, EU PUSHES OUT TO SEA COMPLIANCE Investor.geA Magazine Of The American Chamber Of Commerce In Georgia ISSUE 72 FEB.-MAR. 2020 Georgia’s Road to a Greener Future FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 Investor.ge | 3 Investor.ge CONTENT 6 Investment News Investor.ge provides a brief update on investments and changes in government policy that could impact the business environment. 10 Georgia’s climate change opportunity 14 EBRD green financing pushing climate change mitigation, energy efficiency 16 GeoGAP – moving towards traceable, safer, 22 sustainable produce in Georgia 20 Georgian electricity market surges forward toward green energy, EU compliance 22 What’s in your bin – a guide to the Georgian recycling sector 28 Innovative housing projects, green loans promoting consumer-driven demand for green building 30 From Thailand to Tbilisi: digital nomads come to 34 Georgia 34 What’s new in the 2019-2020 Georgian ski season 38 Maritime sector making waves as Georgia pushes out to sea 42 Georgia’s capital markets prime for influx of international investment after new rules, regs 46 Interview: the Business Ombudsman as business mirror 48 A look back at 2019 with the Georgian 38 Innovation and Technology Agency 50 American Friends of Georgia celebrates silver jubilee with charity gala 55 NEWS ......52 4 | Investor.ge FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 Investor.ge | 5 Q3 2019 EMPLOYMENT RATE UP expected to deliver 16 bcm to Europe an- INVESTMENT 4.6% QXDOO\LQWKH¿UVWVWDJHULVLQJWREFP 4.6% more people were employed by 2023 and to 31 bcm by 2026. Georgia in Georgia in Q3 of 2019 in comparison will receive 5% of the transported gas as NEWS to the same period last year, Geostat a share of the transit from Azerbaijan to reports. Georgian businesses employed Turkey, equivalent to about 300 million INVESTOR.GE 696,000 people in the third quarter of cubic meters of gas This volume is pro- 2019, of whom 40.9% were women jected to rise to 1.1 billion cubic meters PROVIDES A and 59.1% men. 41.5% those employed as exports increase. BRIEF UPDATE worked in small businesses, while 36.3% ON INVESTMENTS worked in large businesses and 22.2% in GEORGIA ASSUMES medium-sized businesses. Trade (26%), INTERNATIONAL OLIVE COUNCIL AND CHANGES manufacturing (10%), transportation PRESIDENCY IN GOVERNMENT and storage (8%) and hospitality (6%) Georgia become the 17th member POLICY THAT employed the most amount of people. of the International Olive Council and COULD IMPACT 64% of salaried workers were located assumed a one-year presidency of the in Tbilisi, with 10% in Adjara, 7% in organization. Georgian Olive founder THE BUSINESS Kvemo Kartli, 6% in Imereti and 4% in Giorgi Svanidze will serve as the chair ENVIRONMENT. Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti. during Georgia’s presidency. Svanidze INFORMATION IN says there is potential for Georgia to TRANS-ANATOLIAN PIPELINE become a “third hub of olives in Europe” THIS ISSUE WAS [TANAP] OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES in the near future. TAKEN FROM The Trans-Anatolian Pipeline con- AGENDA.GE AND necting Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas PARLIAMENT APPROVES 2020 OTHER SOURCES. field to Europe has officially begun BUDGET AT 14.43 BILLION GEL operations. TANAP connects the South ($3.6 BILLION) Caucasus Pipeline with the Trans Adri- Georgia’s state budget for 2020 has atic Pipeline, enabling Azerbaijani gas EHHQ¿QDOL]HGDWELOOLRQ*(/ to reach Italy and Bulgaria and from ELOOLRQ ±DQLQFUHDVHRIPLOOLRQ*(/ there make its way onto other European ($75.79 million). The largest expenses of markets. The construction of the $6.5 bil- the budget include funds for the Ministry lion project began in March 2015, and is RI,QWHUQDOO\'LVSODFHG3HUVRQV/DERU Health, Social Affairs with 4.36 billion *(/ ELOOLRQ ZKLOHWKH0LQLVWU\ RI(GXFDWLRQZLOOKDYHELOOLRQ*(/ ($575 million). The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure has EHHQJLYHQDEXGJHWRIELOOLRQ*(/ ($717 million). An additional 1 billion *(/ PLOOLRQ ZLOOEHVSHQWRQWKH repayment of largely foreign debts. FDIS AT $417.3 MILLION IN Q3 IN 2019 Foreign direct investments came to $417.3 million in Q3 2019, making for a 13.7% increase compared to the same 6 | Investor.ge FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 Investor.ge | 7 the EU in particular were up 13% ($825 defense shrunk 4%, mining and quarry- million), and made for 21.9 percent of LQJZHUHGRZQDQG¿QDQFLDODQG all exports. The increase was partially insurance activities also shrunk 2.2% . thanks to jumps in the export of wines (+13.2%), still and mineral waters GEORGIAN PENSION FUND TAKES (+21.2%), citrus fruits (+44.4%), spices IN 563 MILLION GEL IN 2019 (+24.7%) and other fruits. Overall ex- PLOOLRQ*(/ PLOOLRQ ternal trade amounted to $12.83 billion was accumulated in the pension fund in in 2019. 2019, the Georgian Pension Agency re- ported. The pension fund includes close GEORGIA, UKRAINE, AZERBAIJAN to one million citizens, and includes the AND MOLDOVA AGREE TO participation of more than 61,000 orga- CREATE UNIFIED ECONOMIC nizations and employing organizations. ZONE, ENHANCE FREE TRADE The pension system is mandatory for Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and legally employed people under the age of Moldova (GUAM) signed an agreement 40, while those over the age of 40 have LQPLG'HFHPEHUWRµFUHDWHDXQL¿HGHFR- been able to opt out. nomic zone with the goal of reaching a free trade agreement.’ The GUAM coun- GEORGIA BUILDS 800 KM OF period last year. The top three investing tries will focus on developing economic ROADS ACROSS COUNTRY IN countries were the United Kingdom relations, transport, energy, free trade 2019 (18.8%), the Netherlands (16.4%) and DQGWRXULVPLQDGGLWLRQWRRWKHU¿HOGV Georgia constructed or rebuilt four Turkey (10.3%), with major investments times as many kilometers of roads in EHLQJPDGHLQWKH¿QDQFLDOVHFWRU EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK 2019 as it did in 2018, redoing 800 km million), manufacturing ($49.3 million) LOANS 65 MILLION EUROS TO worth of roads across the country, the and hospitality ($45.7 million), providing SUPPORT GEORGIAN SMES country’s Road Department reported for 45.7% of all FDIs in Q3 2019. The European Investment Bank plans in early December. 200 projects were to allocate 65 million euros to support completed, including the reconstruction GEORGIAN WINE GENERATES Georgian small and medium-size busi- of 52 bridges. RECORD $220 MILLION IN SALES ness. Per the EU4Business initiative, IN JAN-NOV 2019 Bank of Georgia will receive 50 million VISA SAYS GEORGIA IS LEADER Georgian wine producers sold 86 mil- HXURVZKLOH/LEHUW\%DQNZLOOUHFHLYH IN CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS lion bottles of wine abroad in January- 15 million euros. The EIB hopes to help Visa announced in mid-January that November 2019, generating $220 million stimulate the creation of 7,800 jobs *HRUJLDWDNHV¿UVWSODFHJOREDOO\IRU and making for a 20% increase in rev- through the loan. the percentage of contactless payments enue compared to the same time period taking place in face-to-face transactions, last year, the Ministry of Agriculture GEORGIAN ECONOMY GROWS saying 95% of non-cash payment trans- reported in early December. 5.8% IN Q3 2019 actions through are already being made The Georgian economy posted 5.8 by contactless cards or other devices. GEORGIAN EXPORTS HIT % growth in the third quarter of 2019, HISTORIC HIGH IN 2019 Geostat reports, with nominal GDP DEAL SIGNED TO RECONSTRUCT Georgian exports hit a historic high DPRXQWLQJWRELOOLRQ*(/ FOURTH SECTION OF RIKOTI PASS in 2019, with exports increasing 12.4% billion). Sectors that experienced par- An agreement has been reached be- in comparison to last year and reaching ticular growth were arts, entertainment tween the Roads Department of Georgia $3.77 billion. Further closing the trade and recreation (19.9%), information and and Guizhou Highway Engineering GH¿FLWLPSRUWVZHUHGRZQSHUFHQW communications (18.2%), construction Group and China National Technical amounting to $9.06 billion. Exports to (17.1%), while public administration and Import and Export Corporation for the re- 8 | Investor.ge FEBRUARY-MARCH 2020 construction of a section of the critically 17.7 % more than in December 2018. cars annually, hoping to raise capacity to important Rikoti Pass which connects the 40,000 over time. east and west of Georgia. NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL The factory currently employs 300 The 14.7-kilometer stretch of the VISITORS TO GEORGIA UP 7.8 people. Shorapani-Argveta section of the high- PERCENT IN 2019 way will be reconstructed with funding 9.35 million people visited Georgia MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT FUND provided by the Asian Development in 2019, making for a 7.8% increase in CARRIES OUT 250 PROJECTS IN Bank, which has given a loan of 582 comparison to the year before. Georgian 2019 PLOOLRQ*(/ PLOOLRQ86' IRU National Tourism Administration head The Georgian Municipal Develop- the project. Mariam Kvrivishvili noted that despite ment Fund launched 250 projects in loca- The travel time across Georgia from WKH5XVVLDQÀLJKWEDQ*HRUJLDZDVDEOH tions across Georgia in 2019 of which 70 the Red Bridge on the Georgia - Azerbai- to keep its tourism numbers up. have already been completed. jan border through to Sarpi in the south- Visits especially increased from Backed by a budget 30% larger than west of the country on the Turkish border countries where the GNTA organized ZKDWLWKDGLQRIPLOOLRQ*(/ will be reduced to 4/4.5 hours instead of marketing campaigns, such as Germany PLOOLRQ WKHIXQG¿QDQFHGSURMHFWV the current eight. (38.1%), Poland (32%), France (28%), to improve tourism and water infrastruc- the UK (27.5%) and the Netherlands ture, urban transport and to build sports REMITTANCES UP 14.2% IN (26%). complexes, educational institutions and DECEMBER 2019 homes for internally displaced persons. Transfers from abroad to Georgia in KUTAISI ELECTRIC CAR FACTORY December came out to $172.3 million – a TO RELEASE FIRST VEHICLES IN CAR COMPONENTS FACTORY TO 14.2% year-on-year increase.