MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili participated in the presentation of the results of the national innovation ecosystem.

“Support mechanism for the startup ecosystem in Georgia has been developed from the zero level. The project of the national innovation ecosystem has been accomplished, but this project does not end the support of the startup ecosystem in our country and on the contrary, we will be very active in these terms. The state has many plans, goals and tasks to further promote the development of innovations and technologies in the country,” – Levan Davitashvili stated in his speech.

The project has been implemented since 2018 with the financial assistance of the World Bank. 186 projects have been financed up to date, over 40 000 beneficiaries have received assistance and more than 3 000 jobs have been created. It should be noted that a number of Georgian startups created and supported within the project have entered the international market and are doing business successfully. Levan Davitashvili thanked both the World Bank team and the startups themselves for their support and participation in the project. As the Minister of Economy noted, the Government of Georgia is going to work actively in the future in the direction of the development of the startup ecosystem.

As the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development noted, the government introduced one of the most important accelerators in the country – 500 Startups. Several stages of this program have already been successfully completed, and the financing of new startup companies and innovative ideas will continue in the future.

“We want to involve as many people as possible who have innovative ideas or want to use their talents in new directions, improve their skills. We are going to train several thousand novice IT specialists this and next years. By training professional personnel and providing financial and technical support to start-up ideas, we will be able to establish such companies in Georgia that will make our country famous on the international stage,” – Levan Davitashvili noted.

Sebastian Molyneux, the South Caucasus Regional Director of the World Bank also delivered a speech at the event.

Avtandil Kasradze, the head of the Innovation and Technology Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, focused on the vital issue for the development of the innovation ecosystem in his speech highlighting the importance of involvement of private investors and financing of Georgian startups. He also awarded outstanding startups in various nominations.