MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, George Kobulia participated in the West Georgia Regional Business Forum held in Kutaisi. Head of Cooperation Section of the EU Delegation to Georgia, Vincent Rey as well as the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Genadi Arveladze and the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Georgia, Nino Chikovani  also participated in the event.

Over 200 entrepreneurs from West Georgia participated in the event organized by the renewed Imereti Regional Office of the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Participants had the opportunity to get informed about the views of the Minister of Economy about ongoing economic processes in the country, the DCFTA progress, as well as the prospects for small and medium business development.

The Minister, in his speech, emphasized several important directions – he discussed in details the state programs aimed at export promotion, credit-guarantee mechanism and vocational training, which will be implemented at the vocational education institutions in the regions of Georgia.

“One of the major obstacles of the economic development in our country is the lack of the qualified workforce. This does not apply to higher education - we talk about the development of the basic professions. We should assist people willing to work in finding the suitable jobs through giving them the opportunity to get technical and professional education” – the Minister noted.

George Kobulia specified that there is a large program in the implementation phase, where the state will retrain professional staff. “Such educational courses and trainings will take place in the regions of Georgia, including the Imereti Region and I encourage everyone to spread the information about this program as much as possible. We want to attract people, give them professional education and help them to find a proper job. In order to achieve one of the most important goals of creating the new jobs, we need to have qualified workers and the Government undertakes responsibility to generate this qualification in our country” – George Kobulia told the entrepreneurs.

The Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development expressed special gratefulness to the co-organizers of the Forum – the EU and the German International Cooperation Society (GIZ) project “Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development and the DCFTA in Georgia” and Munich and Upper Bavaria Chamber of Commerce and Industry Academy (IHK).