The FINANCIAL — Newly established French Business Council- Georgia (FBC) claims to be attracting new members, thus helping development of the business-economic partnership between the two countries.
“FBC aims to promote the open market system in Georgia and foster French-Georgian business relations to contribute substantially to the expansion, modernization and enhancement of Georgia’s international trade and investment. FBC will promote and organize contacts with business organizations and Chambers of Commerce in France and Georgia, in order to develop commercial relationships and cross border investments,” declared Gilbert Hie, the President of FBC, CEO of Bank Republic (BR) / Société Générale Group.
BR is the very bank to have attracted a huge amount of French investments to its capital. In September 2006, Société Générale- the big French group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) entered into an agreement with BR’s shareholders to acquire 60% and 10% respectively of the share capital of BR.
“French businesses are not very well represented in the country today and the major objective of FBC will be to make Georgia a favourable place for international investors to put money in,” stated BR CEO.
On February 14th, the General Assembly of FBC was organized in the Head office of JSC Bank Republic.
The following organizations are founders of the French Business Council- Georgia: JSC Bank Republic – Gilbert Hie; LTD GWS – Cedric Retailleau; LTD Castel Sakartvelo – Jean Paul Lafranchi; LLC GG&MW (Borjomi) – Jacques Fleury; LLC Georgian Properties – Marcel Benhamou; LTD Sen- Michel” – Antoine Bardon; Agritechnics Holding – Fady Asly; Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Jemal Inaishvili; Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Meurthe and Moselle- France.
The launching of FBC is honoured and supported by the Embassy of France in Georgia.
“The top luxury French jewellery company Cartier is going to come to Georgia soon. It will open a boutique in Tbilisi on February 24. French Le Coq Sportif- sportswear and equipment producer will also soon be available for the Georgian population,” Eric Fournier, French Ambassador to Georgia, told The FINANCIAL.
Cartier’s largest and most luxurious stores are found in New York, Beverly Hills, Waikiki, Boston, San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, London and Vancouver.
Le Coq Sportif is a French company producing sports equipment such as shoes and t-shirts. It was founded in 1948 by Emile Camuset, although Camuset had been designing for many years prior.
Despite its modest size (compared to companies like Adidas, Puma AG or Nike), the brand has seen considerable exposure, including the Korean television series Full House in episode n°11.
“We have a lot of support from different French organizations in terms of Borjomi mineral waters. However, today Borjomi is not directly exported to France, it is mostly exported to the Baltics, Poland and Germany. Although since a very big top class Georgian restaurant is going to be opened in Paris soon we’ll have Borjomi there as well as various Georgian wines,” Jacques Fleury, GG&MW (Borjomi), told The FINANCIAL.
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