Economy Minister Says Georgia Will Have EU Living Standards by 2025
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, December 21
(TBILISI) -- Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili boldly predicted that the impoverished South Caucasus country might have living standards similar to those found in the European Union by 2025-2027, if the country has 7% of annual economic growth.
Kumsishvili made the statement while delivering a speech to several parliamentary committees that was dedicated to major structural changes to the government, launched in November.
He went on to claim that the country’s huge potential in the minerals sector could see the industry increase its exports by 35%.
“More than 25,000 people are employed in this sector at present. We have the opportunity to double this number after intensifying works in minerals sector,” said Kumsishvili.
In his speech, Kumsishvili also spoke about the tourism statistics 2017, saying in 11 months Georgia earned $2.564 billion from foreign visitors.
“Georgia received 994 million international visitors for the first 11 months of the year, a figure that could rise to 7.250 million by the end of December,” Kumsishvili added.
Kumsishvili also touched upon the ongoing larization reform that was launched after the sharp depreciation of the national currency, the Lari, against the US Dollar.
He said the reform will ensure that those who have bank loans are not affected by the dollar’s rise against lari, adding that the transition process to the national currency will take around 5-7 years.
