“Our political force will always support investment coming into the country; the more investment, the better. We will never support xenophobia,” stated Giorgi Sharashidze, member of Gakharia for Georgia party, in Parliament.

According to him, the problem in Georgia today is not that foreign citizens are buying real estate.

“I want to begin with a compliment. The speaker would make an excellent marketing manager for a particular construction company, and I want to appeal to people involved in this field, especially in Georgia, to listen attentively and watch Mr Kobakhidze’s performance, the enthusiasm with which he speaks about the planned profits that Eagle Hills might receive from projects implemented in Georgia.

We have questions regarding the lack of transparency. The main issue troubling people today is that we do not have a clear understanding of what is really happening. I want to list all the issues you didn’t address today.

The most important topic is land valuation. You don’t discuss the value of the Georgian land contributed as capital. You say nothing about whether anyone assessed this land, whether a reputable Georgian or international audit firm did so; and if this didn’t happen, tell us why not. Because in this case, it’s completely unclear where the 33.3% stake in this joint company came from, or why it isn’t, for example, 32% or 34%.

Shares amongst shareholders are distributed proportionally to the capital contributed, whether in cash or in the form of real estate and other assets. Otherwise, the questions the public legitimately has are truly legitimate, because we don’t know when this project will be completed.

You’re speaking in assumptions when you say it might be completed in approximately 10 years, and we’ll receive certain profits; you even named figures. It is unclear how profits can be distributed among shareholders before the project’s completion, whether from an accounting perspective or in practice.

Profit is realised only when a company fully fulfils its obligations, settles all debts, and clears all liabilities with creditors; only then does profit distribution take place. And if we don’t know when this moment will arrive, when the Georgian side will receive this profit, how can we receive profit, for example, this year or in 2026? These are legitimate questions. We won’t receive this profit not because we don’t want to, but because we can’t. It’s impossible before the project’s completion.

You devoted considerable time to parties’ criticism of this project. Our political force will always support investment coming into the country. The more investment, the better. We will never support xenophobia. The problem in Georgia today is not that foreign citizens are buying real estate in Georgia. The problem is that under your governance, the number of socially vulnerable people is historically high, exceeding 700,000. Under your governance, more people die in Georgia than are born; we have a negative demographic balance. Under your governance, more people than ever are leaving the country to emigrate, as they find it impossible to access sufficient resources here to support their families.

Regarding the investment structure, we’re interested in how this USD 6.6 billion is distributed. For example, what share of this investment consists of bank loans? Is it envisaged that the investor will take out loans rather than this being their personal capital contribution? What share is direct foreign investment, and what share is pre-sales? We need to understand that if the share of direct foreign investment is considerably less, then we’re no longer talking about investment, we’re talking about an entirely different model,” Giorgi Sharashidze stated.