MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

First Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili spoke about the current trends in the energy sector of Georgia, the ongoing reforms for the development of the electricity market and issues of cooperation between the state and the private sector in this process at the event "Georgia’s Electricity Market: Future Prospects".

The event was organized by the "TBS Capital" and was attended by the representatives of almost all parties working in the electricity market - public agencies and private businesses, financial and donor organizations, as well as the industry experts and the banking sector. The main speakers of the event talked about such important issues as the dynamics of electricity generation, price and consumption, market deregulation, the new industry support scheme, capacity auctions, world trends, and connectivity with Europe – the Black Sea Submarine project and others.

As Levan Davitashvili noted in his speech, Georgia has a great potential for electricity generation, however, it has not been fully utilized. Therefore, it is important to have a dialogue with the private sector, investors and developers in this process, including on the support mechanisms. According to him, the development of the Georgian electricity market and cooperation with the private sector in this process is particularly important in the light of the current trend of increasing electricity consumption in the world.

"Dialogue has no alternative to make our policy even more adequate and supportive of the sector's development. In recent days, a number of meetings were held, where we compared the main principles of state support with the private sector - to make it more effective and to get actually implemented projects faster. Even today, we will have a discussion with the "TBS Capital" about the sources of financing, so that we can move the projects to the stage of realization and implementation in the shortest possible time. I think that the mechanism of support from the state in terms of price is very effective, however, we are ready to consider other mechanisms that will further accelerate this process",- the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development said.

In addition, Levan Davitashvili emphasized that the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development is actively working on the development of the electricity market, including the legislative aspect, which will have a positive impact on the activities of the private sector, investors and developers. He also emphasized the importance of energy projects from renewable sources and the issue of proper communication between the state and private sector, as well as the population in the process of their implementation including the environmental protection, social issues or others.

"I think that more awareness of the population and also specific, encouraging mechanisms that will respond to their interests will be decisive in the process of implementing projects from renewable sources sooner," – Levan Davitashvili noted.

Within the framework of the event, a discussion was also held on the topic: "Challenges and opportunities of the electricity sector", in which Jubo Turashvili, the Head of the Department of Energy Policy and Investment Projects of the Ministry of Economy, took part.