Ex-finance minister announces customs training program for businesses

An ex-finance minister presented a new program to train businesses to navigate Georgia’s customs regulations at a roundtable meeting for the International Chamber of Commerce-Georgia (ICC-Georgia) on June 19 at the Tbilisi Marriott.

Former finance minister Aleksi Aleksishvili said the program and accompanying training center will “facilitate international trade and business activities.”

The program will give instruction on Georgian financial legislation and procedures, including customs and tax rules. It will also study problems frequently encountered by Georgian businesses.

Fady Asly, chairman of ICC-Georgia and an investor in this newspaper, said the program will help businessmen “get rid of the headache of unnecessary papers” by sharing the easiest ways to navigate tax and customs operations.

Aleksishvili said the center’s instructors would be chosen for rich “practical and theoretical” experience.

The focus will be on an international software format which allows businesses to fulfill customs responsibilities from offices, he said, avoiding extra time and expenses on mediators.

Aleksishvili said the course will be “very flexible” in timing and price; the project has USD 80 000 in funding for its first year, according to the ex-finance minister, with several other sources of funding interested in sponsoring the center.

Aleksishvili is with the Policy and Management Consulting Group, one of the most recent business groups to join ICC-Georgia. Saying that he “didn’t want to enter ICC with nothing to propose,” Aleksishvili made the training center his first project as an ICC-Georgia member.

ICC-Georgia is the national committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, a worldwide business organization with headquarters in Paris.