Georgian insurance companies claim that the amendments to the law on insurance, proposed by the Georgian Finance Ministry, will undermine their businesses by granting privileges to foreign insurance companies.
The American Chamber of Commerce, the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the Georgian Insurance Association held a roundtable discussion over this issue on December 16.
The proposed draft law envisages granting privileges to insurance companies registered in those 30 countries, which represent the members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
These privileges include: no requirements to comply with the minimum regulatory capital norms; no requirements to follow the Georgian regulatory terms and lower taxes and fees.
?The proposed amendments to the law will have a very negative effect on the insurance market: it will reduce the competitiveness of the sector thereby putting the consumer in a vulnerable position, and it will hamper seriously a healthy development of the Georgian insurance industry, financial markets and the country economy in general. The proposed amendments will create a non leveled playing field that will put the Insurance companies registered and working in Georgia at disadvantage,? the press release issued by the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia reads.
At the American-Georgian Business Forum, held in Tbilisi in October, The American International Group, Inc. (AIG), one of the world’s leading international insurance and financial services organization, with operations in more than 130 countries, announced that it intends to open an office in Tbilisi.
But the AIG?s representatives announced that the company will invest in Georgia only after new insurance legislation is passed in Georgia.