Georgian Leadership Holds Talks with Potential Investors

President Mikheil Saakashvili, State Minister for Economic Reforms Kakha Bendukidze and other Georgian top-level officials are holding talks with representatives from foreign companies in Davos, in an attempt to attract more investments in the country, the Georgian media reported on January 29.

?We have already held talks with the leading insurance company American International Group, Inc. (AIG), which will open an office in Tbilisi this year. As you know we are going to liberalize insurance legislation; hence Georgia will be more attractive for this company. On Monday we will meet representatives of the Vitol Group in Zurich. This company is interested in investing in the Georgian transportation sector. We have also held talks with representatives from the Russian Systems company,? Kakha Bendukidze told Tbilisi-based Imedi television.

The American International Group, Inc. (AIG), one of the world’s leading international insurance and financial services organizations, with operations in more than 130 countries, announced last October that it intends to open an office in Tbilisi. But AIG?s representatives said that the company will invest in Georgia only after new insurance legislation is passed in Georgia.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said this week that the multinational Vitol Group  expressed interest in privatizing the oil and gas terminal infrastructure in Batumi.