NEWS / Dimitry Kumsishvili: Cooperation of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey is exemplary

First Vice Prime Minister of Georgia, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Dimitry Kumsishvili, highlighted the importance of cooperation of different countries in the region at the Transport Infrastructure panel of the Tbilisi Belt & Road Forum. As Dimitry Kumsishvili noted, cooperation between Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey is exemplary. "We are expanding this cooperation to involve our neighboring countries in addition to Central Asian and Southern Cooperative countries. Our goal is to create an entity that will solve the difficulties within the corridor," - the First Vice Prime Minister stated.

In addition, Dimitry Kumsishvili defined the current objectives and tasks as harmonization of the legislation and the development of better customs processes. "I am honored to point out that Georgia has started to exchange information with Azerbaijan and Turkey. As for the changes in the customs services, they are very useful since the customs clearance procedures and wait times have been dramatically reduced".

Moreover, Dimitry Kumsishvili expressed readiness to take the initiative of creating a high level working group that will regularly hold meetings and resolve the current problems and challenges. "As for the finances - of course, we need multi-faceted banks. If we do not have funds in the budget, we cannot invest in the infrastructure. We also need a lot of work in this direction to improve the business environment in order to have the best experience of private and public partnership that allows the private sector to be able to carry out its task and promote multilateral development in the country," – Kumsishvili commented.

The First Vice Prime Minister expressed his gratitude towards the participants of the forum and noted that the forum is a joint success. "I would like to have ten times more turnover through this corridor and to achieve a great advantage for all countries," - Dimitri Kumsishvili noted.