Constant improvement of consular services is in the interest of the state of Georgia: Ilia Darchiashvili

Tbilisi: The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Ilia Darchiashvili while speaking at the Parliament of Georgia within the framework of the “Minister’s Hour”, spoke about the importance of constant improvement of consular services and increasing their accessibility.

 According to him, active work is being carried out in the direction of expanding the area of ​​consular institutions of Georgia, as well as the development of the Honorary Consul Institute.

 Also, Georgia already has 85 honorary consuls in 64 countries of the world. The opening of new consular institutions, as well as the Institute of Honorary Consul, serve to protect the interests of Georgian citizens more effectively.

 The minister also spoke about the priority importance of introducing and developing modern technologies in consular activities. According to him, a large-scale update of the electronic system of consular activity management has been carried out, and the process of developing the website is also underway. 

The goal of each innovation is to offer a comfortable service to Georgian citizens living abroad, to reduce bureaucratic procedures and to ensure the maximum availability of services and information.

Speaking before the Parliament, Darchiashvili also spoke about the importance of expanding the area of ​​free movement for Georgian citizens. According to him, the main priority of the Georgian government is to increase the possibilities of visa-free traffic not only with the European Union/Schengen, but also with other countries of the world. Further, visa-free travel agreements with the United Arab Emirates, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Cambodia came into force in 2022. A visa-free travel agreement was signed with Saint Lucia. Visa-free traffic agreements have been initiated with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Namibia.

Domestic procedures regarding visa-free traffic agreements are underway with the following countries: the Republic of the Philippines, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Ireland, Honduras and Peru.

As Darchiashvili emphasized, the expansion of the area of ​​visa-free traffic serves to deepen contacts between people and to facilitate access to the world’s leading markets.