The FINANCIAL — “Georgia’s economy and its sustainability is based on the development of the private sector and therefore, it is important that positive trends were maintained in the first quarter of 2018 and impressive increase of the turnover, release and employment in the business sector was recorded,” – the First Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, Dimitry Kumsishvili commented at the special briefing on the dara related to the activities of the enterprises published by the GeoStat.
According to GeoStat, the turnover of enterprises in the first quarter of 2018 was increased by 18.6% compared to the same period of 2017 and amounted to 18 billion GEL. “It is very important that the turnover of small and medium enterprises in the first quarter of 2018 is increased by 20%, while the turnover of the large companies – by 17.1%,” – Dimitry Kumsishvili told media representatives.
According to GeoStat, the turnover increase of the medium size enterprises equals to 20.5% in the first quarter of 2018 while the same indicator for the small enterprises is increased by 19.6%.
During the period considered, the output of the business sector equaled to 8.7 billion GEL, which is by 16.0% higher indicator compared to the previous year. The output of large enterprises is increased by 14.6%, the output of small and medium enterprises – by 17% [medium size enterprises by +17.7%, small size enterprises +16.4%]. It is noteworthy that in the first quarter of 2018 the share of the small and medium enterprises in the total business sector increase equaled to 9.5%, according to Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.
First Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Dimitry Kumsishvili highlighted that the increased turnover in the business sector, first of all, positively reflected on the employment – in the first quarter of 2018 the number of jobs is increased by 5.3%, including the number of employed jobs, which is increased by 5.7%. “Increase in terms of average monthly salaries of the employed in the business sector is also maintained and compared to the first quarter of 2017, the increase indicator is 8.0% and the average salary amounts to 1106.4 GEL,” – Dimitry Kumsishvili commented.
First Vice Prime Minister, when discussing the data by the GeoStat, noted that the increase is recorded in every field. “The highest contributors to the increased turnover are the following sectors: trade (+16.7% growth), art, entertainment and recreation (+57.8%), processing industry (+16.7%) and construction (+14.8%),” – Dimitry Kumsishvili stated.
According to him, output increase is also recorded in almost every sector while the following sectors need to be specially notes: proceeding industry with 18.0% increase, construction sector with 18.0% increase, trade with increase of 8.2%) and energy sector with 34.8% surplus. It is also noteworthy that the high growth is recorded in the art, recreation and leisure sector (+39.1%) and in the hotels in restaurants industry (+25.8%).
The highest contributors to the increase of the jobs generated by the business were the trade sector (with +5.1%), the construction (+7.5%), the processing industry (+3.7%) and the transportation and warehousing (+5.4%), according to Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.
“New jobs are of outmost importance for our country and launching of the credit-guarantee mechanism would be very facilitating in this regard,” – the First Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development stated. Dimitry Kumsishvili confirmed that Georgian Government will continue to support small and medium business development – the SME Facilitation Strategy has already been evaluated, which covers many aspects.
As Dimitry Kumsishvili noted, number of meetings were already held on credit-guarantee reform, with the participation of the parties involved in the reform as well as with various international organizations to receive the necessary technical assistance to implement the reform. According to the First Vice Prime Minister, the Georgia seeks for the European Union to be one of the co-participants of the credit-guarantee mechanism, according to Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.
The First Vice Prime Minister had a detailed discussion on the Credit-Guaranty Reform at the Monetary Fund within the framework of the official visit to the USA. “As you well know, if the facilitation is to be provided via the Budget, we need to agree certain issues with the donor organizations. They confirmed their readiness to work with us on this issue and I am more than sure that the implementation of this reform will further encourage the creation of new jobs,” – Dimitry Kumsishvili stated.
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