MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Guram Guramishvili, together with the Director of the Land Transport Agency, Levan Gamkrelidze, met with the road freight carriers registered in Georgia and introduced them to the procedure for receiving permits for freight transportation and the relevant issues.

According to the Deputy Minister, the Ministry, together with the Land Transport Agency, reviewed the existing rules for issuing permits for cargo transportation and heard the opinions of carriers about the amendments to be made to it. According to Guramishvili, the procedure for issuing permits should, first of all, be as transparent as possible, reflecting the interests of the shipping companies and in line with the best international requirements.

Guram Guramishvili noted that the Land Transport Agency has started issuing shipping permits to/from third countries since March 18, this year.

"The process is transparent and the list is posted on the website of the agency. We suggested to the leaders of the large shipping companies to participate in the meeting to help the smaller carriers as much as possible to use the permits already obtained, since the large companies have long-term contracts and cargo volumes. It is important that, on the one hand, the interests of large carriers are not affected and they fulfil their commercial obligations, and, on the other hand, the permits received by ordinary carriers are available as well," – the Deputy Minister stated after the meeting. As for the procedure for issuing permits, according to Guram Guramishvili, it will be improved as a result of the involvement of profile businesses, and by next year it might also include the regulation of the permit system for one-time shipments.

Representatives of the Land Transport Agency introduces a presentation on the procedure for issuing permits for cargo transportation, after which a discussion and sharing of proposals was held. The participants of the meeting expressed their full readiness to actively participate in the discussion process.

It should be noted that the Land Transport Agency exchanges permits with partner countries to ensure international road freight transportation, the types of which are: bilateral transportation permit; transit permit and the so-called Authorization to ship from/to a third country. However, only the third type of permit provides for a quantitatively limited volume, as it represents a quota for the shipment of cargo available in the partner country to another third country and is given to the partner country, in this case, Georgia, as a bonus in the light of the trade relations established between the countries and a certain number of bilateral/transit permits exchanged. Therefore, the Agency constantly consults with the partner countries (Turkey, Kazakhstan, etc.) regarding the increase in the number of shipping permits from/to a third country.