The Financial writes about a dramatically reduction of Chinese investments in Georgia. The Economic and Commercial Chancellor of the Chinese Embassy says that the government’s visa policy has a negative impact on investments.
According to Mr Liu Bo, 30 delegates who paid a visit to the country are ready for investments in the energy sector and scheduled meetings but are waiting for visas after 45 days. In his words, China Southern Airlines flies between the two countries, but prior to September the number of passengers exceeded 100, today only 15-20 passengers fly and if the visa policy remains unchanged, the flight is expected to be closed in 2-3 months.
A statement made by the Chinese Embassy with regard to investments is unclear for the parliamentary majority leader David Saganelidze. Saganelidze does not know why diplomats issued a similar statement claiming that earlier the Chinese investments in Georgia were confined to import of household items and Chinese toys of low quality by small companies. Today Hualing Group is the biggest investor in the country which carries out a large investment. It is engaged in construction of the Olympic Village, a large shopping mall and so on.
According to The Financial, USD 89 million investment recorded in 2013 has reduced to USD 8 million in the first and second quarter of 2014.
It is also important to mention the figures published by Sakstat. As per statistics, China accounts for 29% of USD 508 million investment in the third quarter followed by the Netherlands – 18%, Azerbaijan – 16%, USD – 5%, Russia- 3%.