In February of last year, the Minister of Energy of Georgia, Kakha Kaladze, stated that USD 640 million would be invested in energy in 2015. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Energy, GEL 755 million (at that time USD 340 million) was planned to be invested both as domestic and foreign direct investments in different projects throughout 2015. Additionally, the Ministry of Energy further clarified that the USD 640 million named in Kakha Kaladze’s statement, apart from the aforementioned sum, also included USD 300 million in investment for the expansion of the South Caucasus pipeline system. At that time and based upon this information, FactCheck concluded that the statement of the Minister of Energy was TRUE (see the article). After the publication of the annual data of investments made in the field of energy throughout 2015, FactCheck

returned to the topic and verified the amount of investments which were made in the field of energy in the last year and whether or not the Minister of Energy’s promise was fulfilled.

According to the official information of the Ministry of Energy, the amount of investments from local banks in the field of energy throughout 2015 comprised USD 82 million. The amount of foreign direct investments in 2015 dropped by 52% as compared to 2014 and amounted to USD 89.8 million. However, the letter which we received from the Ministry of Energy says that the data are preliminary and the number might increase after being corrected. Of additional note is that the amount of foreign direct investments in the field of energy dropped significantly, by 22%, in 2014 as well. The ratio of investments made in the field also decreased in the total amount of investments – in 2011-2013, most foreign direct investments were made in the field of energy whilst the field dropped to the fourth place for investments in 2014 and to the seventh place in 2015.

In 2015, USD 556 million (85% more than initially planned) was invested within the framework of the expansion of the South Caucasus pipeline owing to the acceleration of the pipeline’s construction activity. Of further note is that the investment made within the South Caucasus pipeline expansion is qualified as an investment made in the field of transport and communication according to the methodology of the National Statistics Office of Georgia.

Conclusion The total amount of foreign direct and domestic investments in the field of energy throughout 2015 amounted to USD 171.8 million which is considerably less than the USD 340 million which was initially planned. Additionally, preliminary data point to the fact that the lowest amount of foreign direct investments was made in 2015 if we examine recent years (according to 2011-2015 statistics). The adjusted data vis-à-vis foreign directs investments will be published in August 2016 after which FactCheck

will return to this topic.

USD 300 million was planned to be invested for the expansion of the South Caucasus pipeline. The amount of actual investment made therein was USD 256 million more than initially planned.

Therefore, FactCheck concludes that Kakha Kaladze’s statement is HALF TRUE.