Vague investment prospects

The prospects of Georgia receiving investments are pretty vague. The situation is now so difficult that the Department of Statistics has "corrected" the data of the two previous quarters to show an increase in investments in the third quarter, although of course it does not admit this and claims that this correction is a refinement of the previous figures.

According to the initial data Georgia received USD 134 million in investments in the first quarter of 2009 but in the second quarter only USD 92 million. This makes USD 226 million in total. Now the figures are different. First quarter investment is now shown as USD 129.841 million. In the second quarter this increases to USD 151.752 million, and in the third quarter to USD 223 million. This means that in the third quarter Georgia received an extra USD 72 million in investment. Even if these figures are correct this situation is pretty dire. But analysts suspect that these latest figures have indeed been manipulated.

Economic analyst Demur Giorkhelidze thinks that the obvious decrease in foreign investment has been caused by many serious factors: the world financial crisis, the impact of this crisis on investor countries and the Russian aggression are among these, but most of all the analyst thinks that the very unhealthy Government attitude towards business is to blame. The propaganda that Georgia has best business environment and is a business paradise is pure PR.

There is a conflict between the Government’s position and reality. However many times you say 'halva', it will not become sweeter in your mouth.