# REGIONAL CORNER: IMERETI REGION, GEORGIA

 

ByDavid Khurtsia

 

Imereti is the most populous region ofGeorgia with more than 800,000 inhabitants. It is located in the western partof the country on the main transit road between the Caspian and the Black Seasin proximity to Georgia’s main seaports and easily accessible by road, rail,and air. 

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Imereti is one of the major traffic andtransit points for the flow of goods between Europe, the NIS, and Asia. Itsproximity to Georgia’s main seaports, Poti and Batumi, makes Imereti Region aprime target region for investors interested in assembling imported componentsor exporting to the European Union (EU) and the Near East. 

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Kutaisi, Imereti’s capital and Georgia’ssecond largest city (250,00 inhabitants), as well as the two other major citiesof the region, Samtredia (37,500) and Zestaphoni (27,000), are major industrialand trading centers.  

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The region’s forest resources are consideredto be among the richest in the whole country. Although a good part of wood fromthe region, such as beech, oak, and chestnut, is already exported to Turkey andthe EU, the wood processing sector still offers plenty of opportunities forinvestors.

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Imereti is a major agricultural region,producing many fruits and vegetables, tea, spices, and various kinds oflivestock. As a result of the decline of many traditional food processingenterprises, these commodities are currently available at very competitiveprices. They offer investment opportunities in export‑oriented processing activitiessuch as deep freezing, juice concentrates, or fruit pastes.    

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There are rich deposits of mineral waters,many of which have already been famous in the NIS for decades. Although some ofthem—such as Sairme—are already bottled, many are still awaiting investment.

 

Imereti’snatural beauty and many historic sites offer  potential investments in the tourism sector. Its numeroushealth spas, such as Tskhaltubo and Sairme, were visited by half a millionpeople per year during Soviet times.

 

PositiveTrends

Martin Bauer, Germany’s largest importer ofblack and herbal tea, has invested in several large tea plantations andfactories in Imereti.

 

After it was sold to a Georgian‑Russian bank,the Zestaphoni ferromanganese factory is expected to triple its production to$50 million in 1999 (35 percent of Imereti’s total industrial production).

 

The Kutaisi truck factory, one of the largestvehicle producers in the USSR, has successfully been restructured.  Spin‑offs include a rubber productenterprise and, in a joint venture with the Italian car manufacturer FIAT,production of molded car details. The whole complex doubled its production in1998 and is expected to continue growing strongly.

 

Several large, new mineral water bottlingplants, among them a German‑Russian joint venture for bottling the famous waterfrom Sairme, started operation in 1998. 

 

Tourist visits strongly increased in 1998.The planned construction of a large hotel in Kutaisi by American investorsshould boost the tourism sector further.

 

David Khurtsia is director of the Business Support Centerof Kutaisi. For more information, contact the BSC at tel: +995 (331) 411-55,tel/fax: +995 (331) 010-01, email: [email protected], or website: www.bsc.com.ge. 

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*Look for Search for Partnerleads from Georgia’s Imereti Region on **BISNISOnline** at www.bisnis.doc.gov.*