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Congratulatory Speech from Prime Minister of Georgia
9 Sep 2017

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

It is my great pleasure to address such a distinguished audience. Bridging eastern and western requires strong collaborations between nations through enhancing economic and cultural and people to people ties. Revival of the ancient Silk Road by the Belt and Road Initiative is a wise step forward in this direction.

 

As the level of economic interdependence between Europe and Asia increases, the opportunities as well as challenges become more evident but also sophisticated. Recent encouraging signs of pick-up in global economy are obvious but still volatile. Although there are growing trade flows, the investment along the Silk Road ensuring long-term and steady development for Belt and Road Concept requires more engagement and cooperation in the key areas such as transport, energy, communication, infrastructure and other fields. Georgia, with its key geographic location, has one of the broadest free trade networks from EU to China, one of the most open economies and globally acknowledged favorable investment climate and it strikes significant investments in modern infrastructure, highways, railways, seaports and ICT networks. Through actively supporting Belt and Road projects, Georgia gradually establish itself as the regional trading and logistics hub with the opportunity to become one of the most competitive connecting platforms between Europe and Asia.

 

It is well known that foreign direct investment plays significant role in the economic development of emerging markets. FDI helps countries to better integrate in regional and global economy and to make their contribution to international value chains. Yet in order to become a reliable part for developed countries. Emerging countries need to demonstrate that they make all efforts for modernizing their economies through the vital structural reforms. In this regard, during recent years, Georgia has been implementing comprehensive reforms agenda leading to establishing outstanding business climate.

 

In conclusion, I would like to once again underline the importance of the deeper cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative through enhancing policy coordination and business to business exchange. In this spirit, Georgia was one of the first countries who jointly with the government of China organized the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum in October 2015. The forum hosted high-level politicians and business delegations from 34 countries. Next forum will be held in November 28th -29th of this year and I would like to use this chance to invite you all to this important event. The forum will provide new opportunities for public and private sector representatives, international institutions and experts to once again gather in Georgia and explore new avenues for deep cooperation.

 

I wish organizers and participants of 2017 Xi'an Silk Road Business Summit and Silk Road international culture week great success.

 

Thank you.