On December 19, 2016, a member of the United Democratic Movement, Dimitri Lortkipanidze, on air on TV Caucasia, noted that no direct investment has been made from the USA to Georgia.
Dimitri Lortkipanidze, United Democratic Movement: “You would be unable to name any direct investment made from the United States, not considering the AES Telasi which was then purchased by Russians, or Itera, which became a sub-company of Gazprom.”
Similar statement was made in the interview of the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Temur Khachishvili to Asaval-Dasavali, in July 2016, He stated that the West has not built any enterprise in Georgia through the last 25 years.
We once again present you the material prepared by Myth Detector in response to the false statement of the former Minister of Security. There, in accordance to the data of the National Office of Statistics of Georgia, we counted the amount of direct foreign investments by sectors from 1997 up until today, which also included the foreign investments made by the United States.
Real facts
From 1997, the EU and the USA made a total of USD 7,458,381 million of direct foreign investment in Georgia, while this figure amounts to mere USD 603,730 thousand.
Foreign Direct Investment in 1997-2015 (thousand USD)
Out of top 10 biggest investors, six are Western. They include: USA, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Cyprus.
Hence, the information according to which the USA has not made foreign direct investment to Georgia is false.
