MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

“Green Growth is not a compromise or an alternative. This means economic growth and environmental stability at the same time,” - Irma Kavtaradze, the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia declared at the workshop on green economic modeling, which was held as part of the development strategy for Green Development.

According to the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Green Growth means the creation of a society development system that ensures the well-being of people and a standard of living in the interests of environmental protection. According to the Minister, the strategy also protects the right of future generations to benefit from the best practices of protection of natural resources and ecosystems, which will be completely preserved from quantitative and qualitative changes.

The second session of the workshop was held within the framework of the Green Growth Strategy, which was presented by the international expert of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Andrea Bass on modeling the areas involved in the strategy. The document covers the economy and the environment protection, including energy, agriculture, infrastructure and the education sectors with a special emphasis on measures to be implemented in these sectors and their financing issues.

The presentation included three scenarios for the construction, agriculture and tourism sectors. Based on modeling, the advantage that could be achieved as a result of implementations of green investments in these sectors was highlighted at the workshop.

After the presentation, the meeting continued in question-answer mode. Participants of the meeting, the representatives of the field concerned with the model analysis, had an opportunity to ask questions to the international expert.

Within the scope of elaborating the Green Growth strategy, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development referred to the EaP GREEN of the EU for assistance, which is being jointly implemented by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Environment Program, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The Social-Economic Development Strategy of Georgia states that "the state will encourage modern technologies for environmental protection and development of Green Economy. In order to carry out this task, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has prepared a Green Growth Policy document with the German International Cooperation Corporation (GIZ).

In addition, in November 2016 Georgia joined the Green Growth Declaration, according to which countries express readiness to enhance implementation of green growth strategies and consider Green and Growth simultaneously alongside with promotion of green investments in their economies.

Principles of green economy implies monitoring and evaluation procedures, which is especially important for the Association Agreement with the European Union and for the accountability of the Government as well.