BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 18
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The priority of the Georgian government is to develop small and medium size businesses (SMEs), said Georgian Minister of Economy Natia Turnava, Trend reports citing Georgian media outlets.
She made the remark at the workshop titled "From Access to Finance towards Inclusive Growth" organized by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Tbilisi on Dec.18.
The workshop was held to discuss how to increase access to finance for Georgian small and medium businesses and the importance of SMEs in inclusive economic growth.
"Support for economic development and smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is a key priority of the EU’s work with Georgia,” said EIB Vice-President Lilyana Pavlova
In turn, Turnava noted, the economic growth in Georgia is mainly dependent on private sector development.
"Increasing the competitiveness of the private sector, especially of small and medium size businesses, is a crucial aspect for sustainable, strong and inclusive economic growth,” said the minister.
Turnava added that the production SMEs increased by 13.5 percent in 2014-2018 and SMEs created over 118,400 new jobs.
According to her, in the third quarter of 2019, over 443,400 persons were employed in small and medium size businesses, which account for 99.7 percent of active economic entities.
Despite the global economic slowdown and external shocks, in the first 10 months of 2019, the economic growth of Georgia amounted to 5.1 percent, Turnava said.
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