Tbilisi Georgia: As part of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank, Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of ADB, led the business session of the Board of Governors.
The welcoming speech, once again, spoke about the importance of holding the annual meeting, both bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
“The theme of the 57th Annual Meeting is “Bridge to the Future” – we chose this title for several reasons. This is – Georgia’s role and geographical location, between Europe and Asia. Also, the impetus that the world is gaining traction from the pandemic, dealing with the global crisis related to the Russian war in Ukraine, other conflicts, as well as adapting to climate change, finding ways to mitigate its effects, and other challenges.
Georgia is gradually moving forward on the path of implementing strategic goals. These are gaining the status of EU candidate country, completing the construction of essential infrastructure, strengthening the connectivity in the context of the middle corridor, creating solid human capital. However, there is still a lot to do in the future. The economy of many countries around the world has managed to recover. Among them is Georgia, which showed resilience.
In 2021-2022, in the period of post-pandemic negative influence and the Russia-Ukraine war, under conditions of strong fiscal consolidation, Georgia’s economy increased double-digit growth rate and maintained this momentum for two consecutive years, by which the country returned to pre-pandemic situation. Above average economic growth was maintained in 2023 and 2024 as well. According to preliminary data, growth in 2023 is 7.5 percent, while the first quarter of 2024 shows growth of 7.8 percent.
“In these challenging circumstances, our policy priorities still include maintaining macro-economic stability and preparing for any possible reversal of the temporary positive factor, mitigating the negative impacts and ensuring the long-term sustainability of structural reforms,” noted Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili.
According to him, Georgia continues its successful cooperation with the Asian Development Bank.
Lasha Khutsishvili mentioned, “Through a diversified portfolio (total of about $4.5 billion), the bank finances both the public and private sectors.” We hope that cooperation with the Asian Development Bank will continue in the future priorities of Georgia, such as energy security and energy independence.”
All of this will be made possible by increasing green and renewable energy production, enhanced connectivity through transmission lines, including the Black Sea submarine cable project, an infrastructure capable of onshore and digital connectivity, corporate governance reforms in enterprises, and investment in human capital. This and many other areas are the main priorities of our agenda”, – said Lasha Khutsishvili.
“To build a bridge to the future, we all need strong regional synergy and the support of development-oriented partners.” Their promotion is crucial to the use of diversified and innovative tools, which removes existing limitations (e.g. Lending in local currencies will increase, as will private sector involvement, etc. ). Due to the nature of the current challenges, immediate response and non-standard solutions are required. “We urge the Asian Development Bank and the countries within its area of operation to work together on these decisions, so that there will be more desire for loans in a fiscally stable environment and, in the end, achieve sustainable development goals and meet the demands of the global climate change adaptation agenda,” said Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili.
At the Business Session of the Asian Development Bank, Lasha Khutsishvili, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ADB and Host of the 57th Annual Meeting of the ADB, officially handed over the Italian Representative the status of the 2025th Annual Meeting.
