MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

“Small and medium-sized business is the foundation of the Georgian economy and, therefore, one of the main priorities of the Georgian government is its promotion. Enterprise Georgia Agency was established for this purpose and for years it has played a very important role in supporting small and medium businesses in various sectors,” – Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Irakli Nadareishvili said in his speech at the Economic Impact Assessment Report of the Agency.

Representatives of public agencies, donor organizations and business associations attended the presentation of the Economic Impact Assessment Report by the Enterprise Georgia Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. Director of the Agency, Mikheil Khidureli, presented the results based on the financial and economic analysis of the beneficiaries of the programs to the guests.

The Economic Impact Assessment Report allows the Agency to effectively evaluate its role in terms of promoting the development of various businesses – in particular, what are the components and the services the private sector needs to be provided with. The results of the Report will be taken into account in the future activities and projects of the Agency.

As Deputy Minister of Economy Irakli Nadareishvili pointed out, one of the important directions, which remains a challenge for the Georgian business sector, especially small and medium-sized businesses, is the access to finance. Accordingly, the Ministry of Economy and the Agency constantly take care of modifying and updating the programs so that they are adapted to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses in a specific situation.

“I would like to highlight, the period of the pandemic, when we completely reorganized the programs to meet the needs aimed at overcoming the challenges that existed at that time. Of course, it is very important to constantly evaluate the effectiveness of programs and their impact. This allows us to make timely business-tailored decisions regarding changes in the design of programs, to take care of the introduction of new tools for one or another sector, which is constantly happening during the existence the Agency. For example, a few years ago, we introduced a very successful tool – a credit guarantee scheme, which became additional lever to ensure access to finance,” – Irakli Nadareishvili noted.

During its 10-year existence, the Agency provided finances up to 11 000 projects, and in total, over 60 000 jobs were created. In addition, the effect of loan interest subsidy is important – on 1 GEL ellocated by the Agency, the beneficiaries managed to generate additional 14 GEL income. Which means that in the GDP, the contribution of 1 GEL amounts to 4,2 GEL.

According to the Deputy Minister of Economy, the Enterprise Georgia Agency will actively work in the future in the direction of providing a wide range of programs. However, all programs will be based on assessment and the needs of the beneficiary businesses.