BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.29
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Since 2016, when we launched our operations, we have experienced solid growth; however, we are still fresh and have long-term plans, said Soso Nibladze, Hualing Free Industrial Zone Executive Director, Trend reports via Georgian media.
"By 2020, the various industrial project investments in Hualing FIZ had exceeded $70 million. Currently, in total, we have around 120 companies that are operating successfully, including international and regional trade companies, industrial and processing projects," he said.
According to him, there are 13 factories presented in the FIZ that are functional and/or in installation mode, covering the following industries: full processing line of wood, manufacturing of high-end HoReCa related furniture, stone, building materials, ferroalloys, pharmaceuticals, solar panel modules, ethanol, textile, plastics, end-user product trade, etc.
One of the most outstanding projects inside the Hualing FIZ is the production of solar panels. AE – Solar, a German company and the leading brand in the renewable energy industry, has been operating in Hualing FIZ since 2019 and, currently, its total capacity exceeds 500 MW per year. Some 150 highly qualified local professionals are employed in the company, and the produced solar panels are delivered to 70 countries from Georgia.
The largest furniture company in Hualing FIZ, Georgia Huashun, is equipped with a unified, high-tech, complex system of wood processing. At the moment, 150 local workers are involved in the project, and the production area is 22,500 square meters. During this time, the company has been able to successfully cooperate with various hotels in different regions of Georgia, and has implemented such important projects in the field of tourism as: Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi, IOTA Garden, Hotel River Side Tbilisi, Gudauri Inn, and Borjomi Palace Hotel.
Iberika Spirits, the daughter company of Spanish ALTOSA Group, an international company for decades dedicated to production and export of wine distillates, made an important investment almost 4 years ago, and decided to carry out the project in Georgia, in the Hualing Free Industrial Zone.
"ALTOSA is one of the first wine distilleries dedicated to the production of brandy worldwide. Its main production is in its area of origin, which is La Mancha, Spain. Each project we discussed is very important for Georgia. In fact, local population employment and the creation of more economic affluence in the region is one of our key missions," Nibladze said.
As he noted, to date, Hualing FIZ has already created up to 1,000 jobs, and it is proud to have the opportunity to do more for the benefit of the region.
"As for future projects, we are planning to continue the focus of our support on various startups and SMEs within completely different fields. In 2021, we also plan to expand the area of the Free Zone by over 22 hectares, and offer our investors even further enhanced and comfortable infrastructure. We will also focus on the implementation of more sophisticated services for our on-site tenants and more digitized service for our international customers. I'm confident that we will continue to build upon our strong foundation since we are committed to lasting improvements and innovation," he added.
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