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No part of this magazine JRWKHFRIIHHLVERRPLQJLQ7ELOLVL may be re-printed, or reproduced or utilized 0RGHUQ*HRUJLDQDUWLVJDLQLQJ in any form or by electronic, mechanical or LQWHUQDWLRQDODWWHQWLRQ other means now known or hereafter invented, ,IWKH3DUOLDPHQW/HDYHV including photocopying and recording, or in any :LWKHU7KHH.XWDLVL" 7HQ7KLQJV<RX'LGQ·W.QRZ information storage or retrieval system without 'LGWKHQHZSDUOLDPHQWEULQJ $ERXW«V7ELOLVL permission. EXVLQHVVWR.XWDLVL":LOOLWKXUWWKH The opinions expressed in this magazine do not HFRQRP\ZKHQLWOHDYHV" $ZDONLQJWRXURIGRZQWRZQ7ELOLVL refl ect the opinion of the American Chamber of WKDWWDNH\RXWKURXJK*HRUJLDQOLIH Commerce in Georgia nor its Board Members or LQWKHV staff, unless otherwise stated. AmCham Georgia 5HOLHIIRUWKH5HDO(VWDWH neither endorses, nor can be held liable for any 6HFWRU eventuality arising from the use of any product or $UHGHYHORSHUVUHDG\WRPHHWWKH service advertised within the pages of this issue. PDUNHW·VUHDOGHPDQGV" Investor.ge is printed by CEZANNE AmCham Georgia 36a Lado Asatiani Street, 3rd fl oor $P&KDP*HRUJLD3DWURQ0HPEHUV Tel: 2 22-69-07 [email protected] [email protected], www.amcham.ge www.investor.ge )(%0$5 ,QYHVWRUJH )(%0$5 ,QYHVWRUJH $WWHQWLRQ1HZV +RXQGV79DQG ,QYHVWPHQWLQ%ULHI 5DGLR1HZVLQ prises, which are often underserved by commercial banks. The funds will help (QJOLVK the bank to increase funding to SMEs There are several quality in order to support growth, job creation, news sites online that provide and to increase the competitiveness of Georgian news in English, the Georgian economy. Russian, and other languages. But if you crave the news, on $'%$SSURYHV0LOOLRQ radio or television, Investor.ge’s /RDQWR7%&%DQN·V%DQN Eteri Maisuradze has compiled &RQVWDQWD for you the times, days, and Funds from the Asian Development station numbers for radio and Bank (ADB) will be used to finance loans to small- and medium-sized en- television news programs in terprises (SME). In addition to the loan, English. ADB will provide technical assistance to enhance TBC Bank’s service delivery to 5DGLR its rural SME clients. Since 2007, ADB Gipa Radio, FM 94.3: Starts has approved more than $1.1 billion broadcasting NPR at 6am, in fi nancing operations for Georgia, of with hourly broadcasts until 11 $97$1',/&+(',$ which $163 million went towards direct am. From 11am to noon: BBC fi nancing of the private sector. broadcasting. From noon to %RUMRPL&RQILUPV6DOHRI 1:00pm: local news. 6KDUHVWR5XVVLDQ*URXS 0HWDO)DFWRU\3ODQQHGIRU3RWL Radio Maestro, FM 94.7: “IDS Borjomi” confi rmed the 2012 BPI.ge reported that the Eurasian Five minute English-language sale of 55.8 percent of the company’s Development Bank, together with Turk- news broadcast at 11am, with shares to the Russian Alfa Group. The ish and German investors, is planning a second ten minute English- remaining 53.2 percent of the company to build a $250 million metal factory in is owned by the Patarkatsishvili family Poti, the Black Sea port city. language broadcast at 7pm. (37.2 percent) and minority stockholders, according to Forbes Magazine. $UJR&RQYHQWLRQ&HQWHUWR 7HOHYLVLRQ 2SHQRQ%DWXPL0RXQWDLQLQ Maestro, www.maestro. $]HUEDLMDQL´3DVKD%DQNµ $SULO ge, channel 241 on Silknet. (QWHUV*HRUJLDQ0DUNHW The convention center, a $40 million Ten minute English-language Pasha Bank plans to create a branch investment developed by Hestok LLC, broadcast at 7pm. in Georgia, located in Tbilisi. Initial au- will be connected to the city center by GEOTV, www.georgianews. thorized capital for the bank is 35 million a gondola lift. It was built by Austrian ge: online television service, lari; while over the next two years the company Doppel Meyer and installed providing English-language bank plans to have assets worth at least by JSC Elektrostroitel. news clips throughout the day. $60 million. %ULWLVK$LUOLQHV/HDYHV*HRUJLD ,)&/HQGVPLOOLRQWR.RU Trend Agency reported that the 6WDQGDUG%DQNIRU60( airline will fl y its fi nal Tbilisi-London- 'HYHORSPHQW Tbilisi fl ight on March 29. Airline rep- IFC will provide a loan of $7 million resentatives stated that the fl ights were to Kor Standard Bank to extend term unprofi table; British Airlines returned to funding for small and medium enter- Georgia in 2012. )(%0$5 ,QYHVWRUJH )(%0$5 ,QYHVWRUJH )(%0$5 ,QYHVWRUJH for Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream *HRUJLD·V1HZ*RYW coalition in the 2012 elections, which ran on a platform of relieving poverty /RRNVWR3UHVV´5HVHWµLQ in the regions by resuming trade relations with Russia. 5XVVLD5HODWLRQV In a recent prognosis for Georgia’s economic growth in 2013, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) %1((8 market – a virtual mecca for Georgian tied Georgia’s prospects to its relations n power for just three months, the wine producers and mineral water with Russia. IMF Representative Azim government of Prime Minister bottlers that has been off limits since Sadikov said growth rates could slow IBidzina Ivanishvili appears to the embargo. to 6% if the country falters under have struck gold in economic relations 1RSODFHWRJR increased political uncertainty and poor with Russia: offi cials in Moscow have For the past six years, Georgian relations with Moscow. “There is a tentatively given the green light to companies have gone to great lengths real possibility of increased trade with resuming Georgian wine and mineral to circumvent the restrictions, Russia, and new sources of foreign water imports, reopening a major exporting Georgian goods through third investment,” Sadikov said in a January market for Georgian farmers and countries and even selling controlling interview with Reuters. “However, if businesses. shares in some businesses to Russian the current uncertainty persists… then While critics in Tbilisi have companies. While Saakashvili and his growth in Georgia could be lower than slammed the overture as striking a government tried valiantly to make we project currently.” deal with an occupying power, the up for the Russian market during the In the weeks and months since true test of PM Ivanishvili’s Russian years following the embargo, it is hard President Saakashvili and his party gambit will be his ability to balance to underestimate its importance to the were trounced in the October 2012 the country’s economic need for its Georgian economy. election, offi cials in Moscow and northern neighbour with Moscow’s Prior to the embargo, an estimated Tbilisi have fl irted with reconciliation: penchant for undermining Georgian 75% of all Georgian wine was exported there have been conferences on trade, sovereignty and its stated goal of to Russia. In 2007, just a year after new committees formed, even a new moving closer to the EU and Nato. the embargo, wine exports reportedly Tbilisi offi ce created for a special On February 4, a Georgian dropped from €59m to just €21m. Over envoy on Russian relations - the fi rst delegation is scheduled to meet the past six years, exports have slowly such step since the two countries with Russia’s de facto wine tsar, increased, nearly doubling to €40m in severed all diplomatic relations Gennady Onishchenko, head of the 2011, but despite opening new markets following the August 2008 war. Russian state consumer protection in China, India, and other countries, the In January, the countries’ agency. Onishchenko famously sector has never fully recovered. leaders were also banned Georgian wine, mineral water In reality, the embargo effect went seen making strides and other goods on alleged health much deeper than just wine sales: toward better relations. concerns