Despite the promised privileges the investors seem reluctant to invest
Khatuna Chigogidze
Tourism in Georgia is considered to be one of the leading branches and the authorities pin special hopes on the Black Sea strip. In autumn of 2010 in Kobuleti (a resort zone in Western Georgia) 11.3 ha of pine grove land was allocated for building hotels and the investors were given privileges. It was decided that the price of land for construction would be symbolic, the investors would get the building documentation free of charge and in case they finished construction before August 1, 2011 they’d be granted exemption from profit and property tax for 15 years. The same privileges were meant for the investors who’d participate in construction of ‘Anaklia-Zugdidi free tourist zone’.
Last November it became known that out of the companies primarily displaying interest to participate in the project and begin hotel construction in Kobuleti 8 companies quitted. At present, out of 27 hotels construction of only three have started. One of the investors (a Ltd.) changed its mind without giving concrete reasons. We got interested and found out that this firm has stopped functioning… Despite loud governmental and TV advertising it seems that for many potential investors the promises didn’t seem convincing.
Vazha Diasamidze (Chairman of Tourism and Resorts Department of Ajara): ‘Three hotels in Kobuleti and two ones in Anaklia are being built. Negotiations with several investors are continuing up today. When visiting tourist or investment exhibitions in different countries we are trying to gain other investors interest as well. I think, in the last count, the project will be successful and hope the investors will invest money in this business in future too. It’s true that construction time expired on August1 but we gave one more privilege to the interested parties and decided not to impose time frame on them. We shouldn’t compare Ajara sea strip with that of Turkey, they are completely different. By the way many Turkish investors come to Ajara and set up tourist infrastructure here.’
Paata Sheshelidze (President of New Economic School): ‘I think creation of such point-targeted, specific zones is less successful. The investors in Kobuleti and Anaklia-Zugdidi free tourist zones were promised many privileges but many important obligations were imposed on them as well. In the last count, in each hotel they had to invest from GEL 2 to 4 million. When a project is planned and financed by central authorities quite often it becomes difficult for implementation and unprofitable.
