Interview with Fady Asly

Interview with Fady Asly, the Chairman of the ICC Georgia

It’s been almost 20 years since the Georgian chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce was founded, how has the business environment changed in Georgia in these two decades?

Well, we had various challenges with the various administrations; during the Shevardnadze’s Administration our main concern was country security, corruption and securing a leveled playing field for foreign investors; during the Saakashvili’s Administration our concern was to stop harassing the businesses and attaching businesspeople perceived to be close to Shevardnadze or to the opposition; now under the Ivanishvili’s Administration we have to deal unfortunately with the combined challenges of both the Shevardnadze and the Saakashvili’s Administrations!

My favorite periods are the years between 2006 and 2007 when the Saakashvili’s Administration had learnt lessons and when businesses were left to develop their activities completely unhampered. This honeymoon period lasted till the August was in 2008.

During the past 20+ years, policy of Georgia was focused and oriented towards the west and currently it seems it has changed the course.

How many members does ICC Georgia unite and what are their profiles by country and industry?

International Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in the world with over 45.5 million members and 12,000 chambers of commerce in our networks. Globally ICC is involved with policy development and facilitation of international business and promoting imports and exports across the globe. We have technical expertise within our organization that can be leveraged to support you when needed.

Locally, ICC Georgia is the largest business organization in the country with over 250 members including corporations, other associations, and youth members.

From your experience, what attracts foreign investors to Georgia and what are their main concerns?

The Investment climate has suffered a lot during the past several years for several reasons. The Georgian government has followed very disruptive policies vis-à-vis foreign investments. There are countless cases of foreign companies that faced the problems in Georgia for the past years. Many investors’ residency cards were confiscated after they had made investments in Georgia or they were rejected at the country boarders or had issues with the courts on the instructions of the local government. Today when we speak about FDI, investors are reluctant to touch the country and will avoid it at any cost and it will take several years of extremely hard work to restore the image of the country in the region and globally.

What needs to be done for foreign companies to invest in projects being implemented in Georgia?

What should be done is to drastically change the policy of the government. There should be a special office under the supervision of the Prime Minister to handle an after-care service to protect all foreign investors, no matter what is their origin or the size of their investment to make sure that all their problems are solved immediately.

The government must stop persecuting foreign investors and foreign companies at the expense of local ones and treat everyone equally.

We ought to have a governmental policy that would equally take care and foster the interest and the well-being of both Georgian businesses and foreign investors alike.

What kind of changes does the country need in this regard?

We need a change of mentality and direction at 180 degree. What we need now is to attract FDI to the country to create jobs; otherwise things will never change.

Unless we have couple of billion dollars in foreign investments a year, which is achiavable in Georgia, we will never be able to create jobs, to stop the current Brain Drain from Georgia abroad and fight poverty consequently in the country.

What kind of business is now ready to take a risk and come to Georgia?

As I have already mentioned above, that Georgia’s image was so damaged internationally in the past years within foreign investors’ spheres that the country turned to become a destination that most of the foreign investors are keeping away at any cost.

Because of the discriminatory policies recently against investors and business representatives from the region and mainly Middle East, our economy growth has decreased and green field foreign investments in the country are almost inexistant, which has a dramatical increase in unemployment and poverty.

What are the plans of the ICC Georgia? What projects do you plan to implement in the near future?

We are active in advocacy, supporting our members however we can, and helping them to develop their business as they see fit. On average we hold 2-4 events per month ranging from luncheons and roundtables with members of the government, diplomatic, and international community, trainings, seminars and actively participating in regional and Global ICC Discussion per field. We hold social events for networking and promoting our members. We are the only tailored association that can support our members in any way they request. There are also free marketing opportunities for the expansion of your business.

The 18 Committees at the ICC Georgia ensures constant updates of information and proper communication of issues with our members, both at the ICC Georgia level and with the international representations and the ICC Headquarters in Paris.

Recently I have been appointed as a Special Representative of ICC Secretary General, Mr. John Denton in Central Asia and Caucasus to lead and support the expansion of ICC in that region. First Representation office has already been opened in Uzbekistan and is entering its active face being followed with the other representative offices soon in the region. Accordingly, ICC Georgia will offer a number of interesting initiatives and projects to those Georgian business operators, who are planning to internationally cooperate on the regional basis in the future.