BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.23
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The closure of borders in Georgia has led to the fact that the automotive sector of the economy is on the verge of bankruptcy, and if everything continues this way, many companies will not survive until the end of the year, said the head of the Association of Auto Importers Alexi Noniadze, Trend reports via Georgian media.
According to him, the cars brought for re-export are no longer for sale, since the borders are closed and no one can come to buy a car.
"According to official data, re-exports have decreased by a third, but in reality, we can say that everything is much worse - sales are reduced by no less than 50 percent," said the head of the association.
As Noniadze noted, Georgian re-export depends on Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, and just all these countries are closed.
The re-export has stopped, the local population does not buy cars now and prefers to spend only on the essentials. But even if the citizens of Georgia start buying cars again, they will still not be enough, since there are too many cars for re-export for Georgia,” he said.
According to him, in this situation, car dealers are forced to sell cars at a very low price. In addition, the further closure of borders may lead to the fact that other countries will be engaged in re-export, and Georgia will lose this function.
“At this stage, we have two requirements - the postponement of customs procedures until March 2021 and the opening of borders with countries from which they mainly came to Georgia to buy cars,” said Noniadze.
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