MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

First Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Dimitry Kumsishvili opened the sand and limestone processing enterprise of the Georgian Mineral Materials Ltd.

At the first stage, the enterprise will employ 60 people and in the nearest future this figure will increase up to 400.

The company of Georgian Mineral Materials has invested more than 7 million GEL in the project".

According to the First Vice Prime Minister, the company intends to create a large unity of raw materials processing enterprises, which is of course appealing.

"Opening and successful operation of this enterprise will once again show how rich Georgia is in minerals, including resources such as quartz sand, limestone and other building materials. It should be noted that the demand for these types of resources has been significantly increased in recent years. Consequently, we have initiated the reform of the earth management, within which we plan to develop an attractive investment environment that will help to obtain / reproduce local raw materials on the territory of Georgia and positively reflect on economic indicators of the country", - Dimitry Kumsishvili stated.

According to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, it is very important that raw materials will be obtained in Upper Imereti and Racha, which will further increase the economic activity of the region.

The Georgian Mineral Materials will be supplying raw materials for such brands as Caparol, Knauf, Henkel, and so on. Consequently, these companies will be entitled to produce glue-cement, plaster and other dry construction mixtures using the local materials.

The company will be able to produce 50,000 tons of raw materials annually and this number will be tripled later.

"This means that glue-cement producers will be given a chance to use high quality Georgian raw materials, which will create the basis to replace the imported glue-cement materials with high quality local products," – Dimitry Kumsishvili commented at the opening of the enterprise.

As highlighted by the First Vice Prime Minister, it is important to attract the interest of private sector with fossil resources, for which we need to make the geological information, which the state owns on different types of mines, available to interested parties, in order to increase the license for applying and, therefore, let the state dispose its own resources and make them interesting and attractive for the private sector thus ensuring the rational use of natural resources.

Since February 2018, the paid service for obtaining the geological information has been canceled. Consequently, interested people can get desired information about minerals in Georgia without any fees.
"We believe that the processes we enacted will increase the possibility of opening and processing of new mines and interest the potential consumers of the mineral resources, thus creating competitive environment and increasing the share of mining industry in the country's economic growth index. It is impossible to achieve this goal without the support of the private sector," - Dimitry Kumsishvili commented.

The First Vice Prime Minister expressed his gratitude towards the entrepreneurs for their activities, which are directed to create additional values in the country.