Georgian Economy Minister Natia Turnava held a presentation today on how the government is planning to help local businesses and especially small and medium-sized businesses reopen and overcome economic difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Her announcement comes one week after Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia presented a plan to gradually open the economy over the next three months, outlining six phases designed to slowly get businesses up and running again.
Turnava said that as part of the anti-crisis plan, programmes designed for small and medium-sized businesses will be extended.
Credit and Leasing Subsidy Programme - the co-financing of subsidising of credit and leasing components will be extended for one year and will equal 36 months (three years) instead of 24 (two years).
Co-financing will be increased by three per cent. The limit will be decreased from 150,000 GEL to 40,000 GEL. The types of activities eligible for co-financing will be increased from 104 to 211. About 300 small and medium-size businesses will be able to use this programme.
Credit Guarantee Programme - the budget of the credit guarantee programme is increasing from 20 million GEL to 300 million GEL and will enable small and medium-sized business to have access to 2.1 billion GEL loan from the commercial banks operating in Georgia.
The state will co-finance 90 per cent of the principal amount of the loan while earlier it was 70 per cent. Before the state was subsidising only new loans while now the existing loans also will be subsidised. The upper limit of the amount of the loan will be increased from 2 million GEL to 5 million GEL. The programme will benefit small companies which annual turnover does not exceed over 20 million GEL.
Micro Grants Programme - the budget of this programme is also increasing and will total 40 million GEL instead of 10 million GEL.
Turnava said that "according to the most conservative forecasts, this year will end at least with -4 per cent growth". However, she said that in 2021 the Georgian economy will likely grow by 4 per cent.
Turnava also spoke about post-crisis plan and outlined several points:
Turnava said that the government will also present a post-crisis plan soon.
Click to see Government's anti-crisis economy plan in details.