Middle East > Georgia > EBRD, EU start project under DCFTA Facility in Georgia

Georgia: EBRD, EU start project under DCFTA Facility in Georgia

2015/05/15

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is providing a €1.9 million loan to local broadcast operator Stereo+ Ltd, together with Georgia’s TBC Bank, to support the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting in Georgia.

The European Union supports this transaction through a risk-sharing facility, the Bank reported.

The digital switchover is critical in modernising the data technology and communications sector, which will help Georgia to meet EU standards. The use of digital broadcasting will make additional capacity available on freed-up frequencies. This will lead, in turn, to additional advanced services and a additional diverse and competitive market – two key goals in the establishment of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Sector(DCFTA).

The transaction is the initial project under the EBRD-EU DCFTA Direct Support Facility for small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs), which will help businesses improve product quality and service standards, access to new markets and additional generally accelerate economic development.

“Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of a dynamic economy– this is the reason why the EBRD supports SMEs through its activities in Georgia,” said Francis Malige, EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. “This financing package opens new and long-term opportunities for local businesses. We are particularly proud to sign this transaction on the initial day of the EBRD Annual Conference and Business Forum in Tbilisi.”

Gerhard Schumann-Hitzler, Director, Neighbourhood East, European Commission, added: “I am very happy to see that the European Union's financial support to businesses in Georgia reaches the final beneficiaries. This is an encouraging sign for the small and medium-sized enterprises in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine that want to invest so they can fully benefit from the DCFTA agreements these nations have signed with the EU.”

Georgia signed an Association Agreement with the EU in 2014, which forms the basis of an ambitious reform schedule inclunding the creation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area. The establishment of the DCFTA will create new trade opportunities and bring economic benefits to Georgia by offering businesses access to the EU's single market – the major in the world.

The EBRD and EU are as well cooperating on DCFTA-related activities in Moldova and Ukraine, the two other eastern European nations that have signed Association Agreements with the EU. These activities are part of the larger DCFTA Facility for SMEs, which will unlock new investments for small and medium-sized enterprises in the three nations, largely from new loans by international financial institutions, such as the EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The DCFTA Facility will boost trade between the EU and the three nations that have signed an Association Agreement. It will as well increase foreign direct investments and transform the business environment in the long run, thereby stimulating increase and creating jobs. It provides SMEs not only with access to finance, inclunding direct lending inclunding loans through local partner banks, but as well with the necessary know-how to grow their businesses. Furthermore, policy dialogue will aim at improving the business and investment climate in the three nations.

The EBRD is the major institutional investor in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The EU is the major donor providing grant resources to the EBRD to manage programmes and projects that due benefit people across the three nations.

Related Articles
  • UNWTO: International tourism – strongest half-year results since 2010

    2017/09/09 Destinations worldwide welcomed 598 million international tourists in the initial six months of 2017, some 36 million additional than in the same period of 2016. At 6%, increase was well above the trend of recent years, making the current January-June period the strongest half-year since 2010. Visitor numbers reported by destinations around the world reflect strong request for international travel in the initial half of 2017, according to the new UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. Worldwide, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased by 6% compared to the same six-month period last year, well above the sustained and consistent trend of 4% or higher increase since 2010. This represents the strongest half-year in seven years.
  • US Vice President Mike Pence To Visit Georgia

    2017/07/08 US Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Georgia in late July, according to the White Home reported. In Tbilisi, the Vice President will meet with President Giorgi Margvelashvili and Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, part others, and visit U.S. and Georgian troops participating in the Noble Partner exercise. As part of his diplomatic tour in Europe, Pence will as well visit Estonia and Montenegro.
  • Kremlin Aide Visits Abkhazia, Speaks Of ‘Favorable’ Political Environment

    2017/07/08 Russian President’s aide Vladislav Surkov, who oversees Georgia’s Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, visited Sokhumi on July 3, and discussed, part other issues, Russia’s financial assistance to the region. Surkov, who is deeply implicated in all political decisions of the two regions, held meetings with Abkhaz leader Raul Khajimba, inclunding the chief of the Abkhaz government Beslan Bartsits. In the opening statement before his conference with Raul Khajimba, Vladislav Surkov pointed out that it was significant to look at “outstanding issues” of economic and political cooperation during the talks, inclunding the implementation of the treaty on “alliance and strategic partnership” signed between Sokhumi and Moscow on November 24, 2014.
  • Higher earning Why a university degree is worth more in some countries than others

    2016/12/11 A university education may expand your mind. It will as well fatten your wallet. Data from the OECD, a club of rich nations, show that graduates can expect far better lifetime earnings than those without a degree. The size of this premium varies. It is greatest in Ireland, which has a high GDP per chief and rising inequality. Since 2000 the unemployment rate for under-35s has swelled to 8% for those with degrees – but to additional than 20% for those without, and nearly 40% for secondary school drop-outs. The country’s wealth presently goes disproportionately to workers with letters next their names.
  • Georgia Ships High Enriched Uranium To Russia

    2016/01/03 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced “an extra succcess in world nuclear non-proliferation efforts”, with the shipment of high enriched uranium (HEU) from Georgia this week. The 1.83 kg of HEU was removed from the Breeder-1 Neutron Source at Tbilisi National University in Georgia to a fasten storage facility in Russia. The Georgian government in June requested assistance from the IAEA for the HEU removal operation. The IAEA subsequently contracted LUCH, a subsidiary of Russian national nuclear corporation Rosatom, and the Tbilisi National University’s Andronikashvili Institute of Physics in Georgia for the removal.