Georgia Predicts FDI Will Double to $2 Billion in Coming Years

Georgia can attract $2 billion in foreign-direct investment annually “in a few years,” with 2012 inflows to exceed $1 billion, the Georgian National Investment Agency said.

“I’m sure this will happen in few years as there’s still room for many investments,” the agency’s head, Keti Bochorishvili, said today in an interview in Tbilisi, the capital. “Areas like tourism, services, finance and hydro power are examples.”

FDI grew 55 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, with Germany accounting for 49 percent of the total, Bochorishvili said.

The economy expanded 12.3 percent in 2007, when FDI exceeded $2 billion. It shrank 3.9 percent in 2009 after a five- day war with Russia over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia the previous year.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net