MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

First Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development delivered a speech at the event dedicated to the development of Europe-oriented agriculture. Levan Davitashvili spoke about the importance of developing the agricultural sector in Georgia according to European standards. As he noted, this issue is particularly relevant today, when Georgia is already a candidate country for EU membership. The minister thanked the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for the assistance provided in this regard.

"We have very close cooperation with the USA not only in the direction of deepening economic relations. The US support in terms of Georgia's priorities in general is very valuable, among which the priority of our integration with Europe and the important support of the US in the process of European integration, including in terms of reforming agriculture, should be particularly noted," – Levan Davitashvili said.

The event was organized by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Agriculture Program and was attended by US Ambassador to Georgia Robin Dunnigan and Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture Otar Shamugia, as well as representatives of the organizations working in the field of agriculture and the private sector.

In his speech, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development emphasized that the agricultural sector is one of the largest blocs of the Association Agreement between Georgia and the European Union, which includes a number of directions, starting from food safety, to the modernization and competitiveness of the sector. Therefore, as the minister notes, the country needs significant support in terms of strengthening agriculture, in which the US International Development Agency's agricultural program and the US in general contributed greatly. According to the Minister, the program is one of the best examples of sectoral partnership between the two countries and a successful, multilateral format.

"The program has been running successfully for five years, and this assistance has brought quite significant results, not only for individual beneficiaries, but also made a significant contribution to the development of agriculture as a whole. The program was successful in many aspects – modernization of different directions of agriculture, as well as institutional strengthening, promotion in various directions. In fact, it applied to all directions of the agricultural development strategy. The development of export-oriented agriculture, as well as the development and promotion of exports in the economy in general, is one of the most important priorities for us," – Levan Davitashvili stated.

In addition, Levan Davitashvili emphasized that the program throughout the country, in all regions of Georgia, contributed to the identification of challenges in various agribusinesses, their overcoming and, accordingly, the development of the agricultural sector. A co-investment of 30 million USD was made, and the enterprises benefiting from the program increased their sales by 148 million USD.

The First Vice Prime Minister emphasized the challenges in the sector. According to him, logistics remains one of the most urgent challenges, therefore it is very important that a cargo terminal is planned to be opened at the Kutaisi Airport - it will improve the sale of perishable agricultural products and food and, accordingly, will be a new stimulus for the agricultural sector of Georgia. Davitashvili confirmed that the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development is actively working in this direction.