USD 450 mln FDI in Two Months – PM
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) amounted to USD 450 million for the first seven weeks of 2008, Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said on February 19.
He said the figure showed that investor confidence – dented by last November’s unrest – had been restored. “Foreign investors’ confidence in Georgia has been fully restored in the first two months of this year,” PM Gurgenidze said. “They have seen following the January 5 presidential election that reform is underway.”
He maintained that a new government economic package was a factor in the restoration.
“We have been making conservative estimates and were expecting up to one billion U.S. dollars in foreign investment this year,” the prime minister said, “but as we have already gotten USD 450 million, there is cause for optimism and [we now expect] total investment to amount to USD 1.5 billion this year.”
The prime minister also said that a proposed eurobonds issue worth USD 500 million would, if it goes ahead as planned this April, mean an additional inflow of foreign capital into the country.
