Georgia to ‘Explore’ Creating Public Register of Company Beneficial Ownership

Georgia has stopped short of committing to establishing a public register of company beneficial ownership, but vowed at the global anti-corruption summit in London to consider creation of such a mechanism.
 
Georgia has online public register of companies allowing finding out information about ownership. But if a company, registered in Georgia, is owned by an offshore-registered entity, no information about a real owner of the shares is publicly accessible. Only the broadcasters are obligated to disclose their beneficial owners; Georgia banned ownership of broadcasters by offshore-registered firms in 2011.
 
At the anti-corruption summit, hosted by PM David Cameron, Georgia said it “commits to exploring feasibility of establishing a public central register of company beneficial ownership information.”

Australia, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway made similar commitments at the summit, while six countries, Britain, Afghanistan, Kenya, France, the Netherlands and Nigeria, have committed to introduce publicly accessible registers containing information who really owns companies in their territories.

PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili led the Georgian delegation at the summit, where the participants submitted written statements detailing concrete actions they plan to undertake to fight corruption.

In other commitments, outlined in its statement, Georgia has also pledged to ensure its law enforcement agencies to have “full and effective” access to beneficial ownership information for companies and other legal entities registered in Georgia. It has also committed to implement bilateral arrangements to ensure exchange of information with partner countries’ law enforcement agencies about company beneficial ownership.

In his remarks at the summit, PM Kvirikashvili has called for “consolidation of international efforts” to fight against corruption. “The more countries implement the improved transparency standards, the more perceptible the results will become throughout the whole world,” he said.

Also on May 12, the Georgian PM met British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who visited Georgia in March, as well as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.

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