Georgia received $568 million in foreign investment in the first quarter of 2022

Foreign direct investment in Georgia

According to the National Statistical Office of Georgia, in the first quarter of 2022, the volume of foreign direct investment in the country’s economy amounted to 568,200,000 dollars, which is 4.3 times more than in the same period last year.

Most of this came in the form of a reinvestment. This means that there are still fewer new investments in the country, but existing investors reinvest their earnings / profits.

As a result, the increase was mainly due to an increase in equity capital and reinvestment rates.

The sectoral distribution of investments is as follows:

• Energy sector – 236,400, dollars (41.6% of total foreign direct investment);
• Financial sector – 111,100,000 dollars (19.5%);
• Real estate sector – 81,300,000 dollars (14.3%).

According to the volume of direct investments in Georgia, the top three investor countries include:

• Spain – 196,100,000 dollars (34.5% of the total volume of foreign direct investment);
• Great Britain – 87,200,000 dollars (15.3%);
• Turkey – 67,100,000 dollars (11.8%).

Also, for the first time since 2017, Russian investment in Georgia is negative: in the first quarter of 2022, foreign direct investment from Russia amounted to – 11.2 million dollars.

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The Georgian government claims that the country has a favorable investment climate, although some private sector representatives and experts point to a deteriorating investment environment and a number of problems hindering investment in general.

For example, according to the founder of Coca-Cola Bottlers Georgia, Temur Chkonia, one geographic location is not enough to attract investment, and the state should offer investors other conditions.

“In order for Georgia to be attractive to investors, it needs a large population, which does not exist. We also need to have a stable court, which, unfortunately, we also do not have”, Chkonia says.

The International Chamber of Commerce of Georgia (ICC-Georgia) was not present at the meeting of the Council of Investors chaired by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

“The meeting with the Prime Minister of the Investor Council has turned into a theatrical performance where all issues had already been discussed before the meeting, the actors were told what to say or not to say, and all problematic issues that could upset the government were not discussed”, said Fadi Asli, Chairman of ICC-Georgia .

Investments in Georgia