Baku, Azerbaijan, September 5
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Economic Attaché who will deal exclusively with economic diplomacy will be sent to China, which is one of the main trading partners of Georgia, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia David Zalkaliani, Trend reports with reference to newsgeorgia.ge.
“At the first stage, we will send the economic attaché to China. A selection contest has already passed, seven people have been short-listed,” Zalkaliani added.
According to him, all seven future economic attachés are currently undergoing special training.
"They are being trained at our Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training and Research Institute. We have developed a special vocational program for them", Zalkaliani said.
According to the minister, the economic attachés will promote export from Georgia, protect the rights of Georgian exporters, attract investment and facilitate import of modern technologies into Georgia.
Zalkaliani added that in the future, the ministry plans to send the economic attachés to countries, which are important trade partners of Georgia, including, among others, the United States, Britain, Germany, Belgium and a number of other European countries.
The decision to introduce a position of Economic Attaché was made in Georgia in 2016 with the aim to develop economic diplomacy and attract foreign investments to the country. Within two years, the parliament was preparing the legislative framework, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a competition for the selection of candidates.
In January 2018, Georgia and China signed a free trade agreement. In 2018, the foreign trade turnover between Georgia and China exceeded $1 billion, which is almost 32 percent more compared to 2017. Georgia exports copper ore, natural grape wines and other goods to China and mainly imports computers, rubber tires and other commodity goods.
The foreign trade turnover of Georgia with China in January-July 2019 amounted to about $567.9 million, with the United States - to about $302 million, with Germany - to more than $277.6 million. These countries are among the ten largest trading partners of Georgia.