MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili participated in the official opening of the Digital Transformation Forum Georgia 2022 and addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. The Digital Transformation Forum was organized by the Georgian ICT Cluster and the Georgian Digital Transformation Consortium with the support of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, the USAID Economic Security Program and USAID Economic Governance and more than 20 other partners. The Forum is scheduled from June 27 to July 1.

Vice Prime Minister highlighted that Georgian Government has done a lot over the years to develop a digital and innovative ecosystem in the country. According to Levan Davitashvili, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has established a Digital Transformation Council with the participation of private sector representatives.

“We are ready to take important and daring steps at the fastest possible pace in order to implement digital transformation in the country quickly and correctly. We are working with the World Bank to create a document for the development of the digital economy in the country. In this process, it is necessary to fully involve the state structures, as well as take into account the views of the private sector, which should become the basis for the rapid development of the digital economy in the country. Work on the working version of this document will be completed soon and we will start active discussion on the relative issues with the business,” – Levan Davitashvili noted.

The Minister focused on the IT business support mechanisms that the Government has adopted during the recent years. Those include tax breaks for technology companies that provide services to clients outside the country – the income tax for such companies has been reduced from 20% to 5%, the profit tax – from 15% to 5%, while the VAT and property tax have been abolished at all. According to Levan Davitashvili, this facilitated the entry of international companies and the employment of local specialists in high-paying positions since after those tax breaks, such large international companies as Viber, EPAM and Exadel entered the country. The Minister also spoke about the decisions taken by the LEPL Innovation and Technology Agency of the Ministry to develop an innovative ecosystem in Georgia and support local startups.

The opening ceremony was also attended by the USAID Mission Director Peter Wiebler, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Sectoral Economics and Economic Policy David Songhulashvili, Vice President of the National Bank Nikoloz Gagua, Member of the Communications Commission Ekaterine Imedadze, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Irakli Nadareishvili and the Head of the Technology Agency, Avtandil Kasradze.

The Forum is to discuss 4 different directions – government technologies and digital transformation, financial technologies, education and communications.

Representatives of public agencies, as well as representatives of academia, IT - business and consulting, who will talk about the trends, challenges and opportunities in the process of digital transformation, are to be the participants of the Forum.