the State Minister of Georgia for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Davit Bakradze, stated that Georgia has close relations with Asian countries. According to the Minister, Georgia received USD 700 million in investment from India and USD 1 billion in investment from South Korea.

took interest in the accuracy of the statement.

The National Statistics Office of Georgia publishes information about foreign direct investments. According to the Office’s information, the rate of foreign direct investments from India to Georgia was negative in the period from 2013 to the second quarter of 2016. In the same period, USD 12 million was transferred from Georgia to India. In the same period, foreign direct investments from South Korea to Georgia constituted USD 62 million.

The National Statistics Office of Georgia has been compiling statistics about foreign direct investments since 1996. From 1996 until the second quarter of 2016, India invested USD 52 million in Georgia and South Korea invested USD 112 million. Therefore, the total amount of foreign direct investment in the 20-year period vis-à-vis these two countries falls significantly short from the figures given by the State Minister.

 Foreign Direct Investments from South Korea and India (USD million)

According to the information of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, Azerbaijan was the largest investor in Georgia in 2015, having invested USD 550 million in the country last year. The Netherlands was the leader in terms of investments in 2013 and 2014 with USD 153 million and USD 374 million invested, respectively.

If we take a look by region, USD 753 million was invested in Georgia from the member states of the European Union and USD 592 million was invested from the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The amount of investments from other countries constituted USD 171 million.

In total, USD 941 million was invested in 2013, USD 1.75 billion in 2014, USD 1.56 billion in 2015 and USD 376 million in the first quarter of 2016.

 Major Countries in Terms of Foreign Direct Investments in 2013-2015 (USD million)

Whilst talking about USD 700 million in investment from India, Davit Bakradze was perhaps referring to the Tata Group initiative which envisaged investing USD 700 million in the field of energy. Representatives of the Tata Group met with the Minister of Economy of Georgia in 2013. As illustrated by the statistics, however, Georgia has not received this investment. In regard to investment from South Korea, the Korean company, K-Water, announced plans for the construction of the Neskra hydroelectric power plant in 2015. According to the project, USD 1 billion will be invested before 2019. In July 2015, K-Water concluded a contract with the Italian company, Salini Impreglio, about the construction of a hydroelectric power plant with preparatory construction work having been launched in September 2015.

Investments from South Korea from 2013 until the second quarter of 2016 amounted to USD 62 million whilst the investment rate from India was negative, at USD -12 million. From 1996 when the National Statistics Office of Georgia started its calculations of foreign direct investments, there has been a total of USD 112 million in investment from South Korea and USD 52 million from India. The figures given by the State Minister – USD 700 million and USD 1 billion  ̶  fall far from the official data. Davit Bakradze might have assumed the plans for two projects as already accomplished investments but the Georgian economy has not yet seen this money.