Arad Benkö, Austrian Ambassador to Georgia released a statement about the information released by the media about business environment in Georgia.

The Ambassador explained that on 30 May a one and a half hours long interview was conducted on TV Pirveli with some Ambassadors on the business environment in Georgia.

“Press reports attribute to me various statements criticizing Georgia. “In fact, they are taken out of context of an interview which highlighted the ample opportunities and discussed challenges of investing here including in the energy sector and tourism, areas where Austria is very active in Georgia.

Let me re-iterate that I have explicitly pointed out in the interview that corruption is low and the rule of law is warranted in Georgia. I also underlined that Georgia is an attractive hub for the whole South Caucasus. Austrian companies are very eager to invest in Georgia and the increased number of trade missions and the expanding trade volume is an impressive indicator for that. But the potential is not exploited and both Georgia and Austria work very hard to bring business partners together. In explaining the political environment some expressions that could be misinterpreted were used.

Let me underline the importance of the strengthening of the Public Procurement System for the country’s economic growth. Austria is proud to support the State Procurement Agency through the EU twinning instrument. While the existing public procurement system is fully operational the twinning project objective is to harmonize Georgian Public Procurement to EU standards,” the Ambassador said.