Long-Standing Tradition of German-Georgian Development Cooperation

Peter Fischer, Ambassador of Germany to Georgia

Historical background of the German-Georgian development cooperation

In 1992, Germany was the first country in the world to establish diplomatic relations with Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia was finally independent again, but at the time, the country had to face severe challenges. The short civil war had devastated large sections of the city center of Tbilisi. The wars over Abkhazia and South Ossetia had displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and thousands had lost their lives. The energy supply, health system and economy had largely broken down. Anarchy ruled the streets, and many people were considering leaving their home country.

From the very beginning, development cooperation has been one of the main pillars of the German-Georgian relations. Since 1992, Germany has provided Georgia with a total amount of 1.2 billion Euro of direct support. Only last year, we were celebrating 30 years of bilateral Georgian-German development cooperation. Looking back, we can say that Georgian-German development cooperation has addressed the right priorities: After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Germany supported Georgia in particular in reforming its legal and judicial system. Among others, Germany was involved in the drafting of the today’s Georgian constitution. The power supply has been improved on a major scale over the last 20 years and massive investments in infrastructure have provided a technical basis for importing and exporting energy. The development of protected areas and integrated biodiversity management have made it possible to protect Georgia’s great ecological assets. Together, we have been able to address the shortage of skilled labor by introducing dual vocational training in important industries such as wine, tourism, and logistics. By rehabilitating water and wastewater systems in Batumi, we have not just been able to enhance people’s living conditions but we have also improved the protection of the Black Sea and the creation of jobs in tourism. These results have been achieved thanks to three decades of close cooperation with the Georgian government.

The majority of these German Government funded projects has been implemented thanks to our main implementing organizations on the ground and well-known and trusted partners in Georgia, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and the KfW Development Bank, both of which have opened a regional office in Tbilisi in 2006. There are many more German organizations who stand for the good work on the ground such as Sparkassenstiftung, DVV, Sequa, Deutsche Welle Akademie (DWA), Brot für die Welt, Renovabis, SOS Children’s villages, Caritas Germany, DAAD and the German Political Foundations (Adenauer, Böll, Ebert, Naumann).

Recent bilateral development cooperation

Today, German-Georgian development cooperation focuses mainly on technical and vocational education and training, private sector and financial sector development, renewable energy and energy efficiency, sustainable urban development in order to support a just transition, Good Financial Governance as well as the conservation of nature and biodiversity.

Germany acknowledges the pivotal geopolitical role of the energy sector in Georgia and the entire Caucasus region. Germany has been and still is the biggest bilateral contributor to the development of the Caucasian transmission sector and plans to continue supporting the Georgian government in this area. Furthermore, Germany supports the important Georgian energy sector reform with a policy-based loans (PBL), together with the French AFD and EU. Germany has also been supporting dual vocational education in Georgia since more than six years. In this period, 17 long-term and more than 30 labour market-oriented certified short-term programmes have been developed in cooperation with the private sector. Three holistic flagship TVET (technical and vocational education and training) facilities (Centres of Excellence, CoE) for the tourism and wine-making sector as well as the logistic and transport sector will be established in the future for more than 1.000 students. This opens up new perspectives, especially for young Georgians, and helps to reduce the shortage of qualified workers.

In 2007, with support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) the “Caucasus Nature Fund” was founded. The Fund’s work is particularly important for the  South Caucasus region, as it is one of the 25 most important but also most threatened biodiversity hotspots worldwide. The Fund’s work includes, in particular, projects aimed at preserving the South Caucasus region. With regard to Georgia's ecosystems and biodiversity the Funds work also helps to further strengthen Georgia's potential in the field of tourism. Among others, there were twelve protected areas established throughout the country that are maintained and managed with the financial support of the German Government.

Future of German-Georgian development cooperation

Within the framework of the German-Georgian intergovernmental negotiations, which took place recently (June 2023) in Berlin, a package of measures of up to 68 million Euro for the German-Georgian development cooperation was allocated for the next two years. The projects will focus on the improvement of water supply and waste water disposal particularly for the poor rural population of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, on the development of a model for a regional transport network and the improvement of urban mobility in Tbilisi and Batumi. Furthermore, the German government seeks to continue contributing to the improvement of the employment situation in selected growing sectors by working with both the public and the private sector. In particular, I want to highlight the first concrete investment project in green hydrogen technology in the Caucasus region which was agreed during the government negotiations. Germany will provide 23 million Euro for the expansion of green hydrogen in Georgia. The funds will be used over the next few years to build, among other things, an electrolysis plant with a hydrogen storage tank and wind turbines for the necessary electricity production. This project will contribute for Georgia to become a green energy hub and develop a green economy.

To conclude, the long-standing tradition of the German-Georgian partnership in the field of development cooperation will thus be continued. With the EU perspective, we have added another dimension to the relations of the last 30 years, and Germany will continue to support Georgia on its path to a European future and on its way into the EU.