MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

“The development of financial technologies is a crucial direction for the country’s economy. In recent years, Georgia has experienced unprecedented economic growth – the average real economic growth over four years was higher than 9,5%. However, to ensure and maintain this, the inclusive development of financial services is very important” – the First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili said in his speech at an international conference dedicated to the development of financial technologies.

Levan Davitashvili noted that when it comes to the country’s development and inclusivity, access to finance is critically important, and the most important way to achieve this in the modern world is through the use of financial technologies. According to the First Vice Prime Minister, Georgia is a quite developed country in this regard, with one of the leading banking sectors in the region.

“For example, according to the Global Finance, Bank of Georgia was recognized as the best digital bank in 2024, which indicates that banks in Georgia offer customers not only traditional services but also financial services based on innovative technologies. However, it is very important for us that the financial market is not only represented by banking services and that there are maximally broad opportunities for using various financial instruments. Therefore, the Ministry, together with the National Bank, is working closely on capital market reform and the introduction of various financial instruments. It can be said that this is one of the most important priorities of the Georgian government in terms of economic reforms” – Levan Davitashvili stated.

The conference, aimed at raising awareness about the fintech development strategy, was organized by the National Bank of Georgia. The President of the National Bank, Natia Turnava, Minister of Justice Paata Salia, and Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze spoke about the importance of financial technologies development in the country and the government’s activities in this direction. Representatives of the private sector and industry experts also participated in the conference.

As Levan Davitashvili noted in his speech, in a rapidly changing global environment, knowledge-dependent and knowledge-related economic directions have prospects, and accordingly, strategic investments should be made in these directions so that the country has a competitive economy in the future. He also emphasized that supporting the field of innovations and technologies is important to maintain the competitiveness of the entire economy.

“In this direction, the state has a quite active policy – the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency has been actively working on promoting innovative startups in recent years. In recent years, we have spent approximately 45 million GEL to support innovative startups, and as a result, the economic effect exceeds approximately half a billion GEL. The direction and encouragement of fintechs are particularly important, which is also supported by the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency – we have invested up to 4 million GEL in 17 startups, and they have attracted over 55 million GEL. I hope that these startups will be very successful in the future, grow, and be able to enter international markets, for which the Ministry of Economy and the state are doing everything” – Levan Davitashvili explained.

Furthermore, according to the First Vice Prime Minister, changes are being introduced to the law on innovations, which provide for unprecedented tax benefits for innovative startups for a period of 10 years, including a zero tax burden for the first three years. Also, a new international startup acceleration program will start this year, which will include at least 160 startups annually and provide access to up to 200 000 GEL in funding for each of them.