Brussels, 21/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Visiting Tbilisi to assess progress in implementing the EU-Georgia free trade area 18 months after it entered into force, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström launched a €62 million financial and technical assistance initiative - EU4Business - on Monday 21 March. The initiative will help Georgian SMEs access the European market.
EU4Business is a financial and technical assistance programme funded by the EU. It includes support for Georgian SMEs to adapt to EU standards and to have access to finance and business advice. It also includes support to the Georgian government for reforms in the private sector, and action aiming to strengthen professional organisations.
15% increase in Georgian exports. Malmström met Georgia's President Giorgi Margvelashvili along with members of the Georgian government on Monday. During a speech to the ISET Business School at Tbilisi University she hailed the initial gains of the free trade area, and stated that the EU was now the first destination for Georgian exports (currently taking 29%). Comprising mainly basic products and raw materials, Georgian exports to the EU have recorded a 15% increase in a year. Bilateral trade stood at over €2.5 billion in 2015, and the EU was the source of just under half the investment made in Georgia between 2009 and 2014, Malmström stated.
SPS reforms expected. “We have already seen success stories. Georgian blueberries and kiwis can now be purchased in supermarkets in the UK and Germany. These are early but encouraging signs of the capacity of Georgian products - meeting the legal requirements to sell food in the EU is a major achievement. And these products are just the start. There is real potential for other Georgian products, like honey and fish, in the future”, Malmström stated, underlining crucial sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) reforms.
Keeping a long-term perspective. Hailing the implementation of a competition authority and improvements brought to transparency, which have enabled Georgia to move forwards in international classifications such as those of the Transparency International or the World Bank, Malmström also asked Georgia's political leaders to keep a long-term perspective, working with civil society and the business world in order to ensure deep-seated changes in the country. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)