Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili participated in the opening event of the international conference – Competition and Consumer Protection.
The Minister addressed the participants of the conference with a welcoming speech, in which he spoke about the need for healthy competition in Georgia, the development of competitive business at the international level, the need for effective mechanisms for the protection of consumer rights, and the progress achieved in this regard in recent years.
In his speech, Levan Davitashvili emphasized another successful step taken by Georgia on the road to European integration – as he noted, the positive recommendation issued by the European Commission to the Council of the European Union to grant Georgia the status of a candidate for the European Union membership is a worthy recognition of Georgia’s intensive work and achieved results, and as a whole, it is the merit of the country.
“It should be noted that the recommendation of the European Commission is supported by the tangible progress we have achieved during the recent years in terms of implementing reforms with the rightful, consistent policy. It is the association agreement with the European Union that has made significant progress in recent years in terms of competition policy and protection of consumer rights. With the additional amendments made to the competition legislation in 2020, Georgia has fulfilled its obligation under the Association Agreement – the country should have comprehensive legislation, which will be focused on creating healthy competition for the business sector and preventing abuse of the dominant position by economic agents,” – the Vice Prime Minister noted.
The Minister noted that in 2022, as a result of many years of work, the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights corresponding to the best international practice was enacted in Georgia. According to Levan Davitashvili, the adoption of this law created additional mechanisms that stimulate the development of globally competitive business in the country.
“I am sure that the Competition Agency, based on the accumulated knowledge, will be able to successfully implement them in the shortest possible time. On behalf of the Government of Georgia, I would like to express my gratitude to the Governments of the European Union and the USA for their continues technical and financial support over the years. This support ultimately contributed to the implementation of the competition and consumer rights policy and the country’s institutional development in this direction,” – the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development noted.
The international conference was jointly organized by five regulatory agencies: the National Competition Agency, the National Bank, the Semek, the State Insurance Supervision Service and the Communications Commission. The purpose of the event was to strengthen the competition policy and improve consumer rights mechanisms in Georgia. Delegations from 20 countries and heads of competition and consumer agencies of 10 different countries, representatives of government agencies, parliamentarians, local and international experts, representatives of public agencies, regulatory bodies, academia and the business sector participated in the conference.
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