About Businesses for Georgia
Businesses for Georgia (BfG) is a coalition of policymakers, organizations and businesses established to promote trade and investment between the country of Georgia and the United States of America.
The BfG coalition promotes an understanding among key U.S. businesses, industry leaders and stakeholders of the economic and strategic opportunities in Georgia and its neighboring countries. The BfG coalition raises awareness of the Georgia’s business-friendly climate, attractiveness to foreign direct investment (FDI) from the United States and unique location as a gateway to European, Asian and growing Eurasian markets. The coalition serves as a forum and convener for those working to establish greater economic ties between the two nations, and the broader region.
The Case for Georgia
Georgia is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, giving companies access to untapped opportunities.
Georgia is recognized as one of the easiest places to do business in the world, with a business-friendly climate that offers access to an untapped region of some 200 million people.
The business environment continues to strengthen as the government prioritizes reforms and investment to support FDI and a strong open economy.
Georgia is a free and democratic ally of the United States.
Our Activities
We are members of a broader network of companies, business associations, and former policymakers that support increased economic and trade relations between the United States and Georgia
We are working to encourage city, state, and federal policymakers to increase trade and investment ties between the United States and Georgia
Live
Op-eds / Press Releases / News Room
PRESS RELEASE – World Bank Expresses Readiness to Deepen Cooperation With Georgia
September 24, 2019
The World Bank has announced that it is prepared to expand cooperation with Georgia. The World Bank plans to deepen its cooperation with Georgia in energy, agriculture and regional and municipal infrastructure.
PRESS RELEASE – Prime Minister Meets With Heads of U.S. Leading Investment Funds
September 24, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister, Giorgi Gakharia met with the heads of leading U.S. investment funds to discuss investment opportunities in the Republic of Georgia. The investor delegation, led by MizMaa Ventures, focused on investments in Georgia as a transit and logistical hub connecting Europe and Asia.
PRESS RELEASE – Demand for Real Estate Grows in Georgia
September 19, 2019
The National Bank of Georgia has reported that housing sales in the Republic of Georgia have increased by 22% due to the growth of the Georgian real estate market. The bank reports the growth is due to higher wages and liberalization of the economy.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC – Tbilisi: The World’s Most Bohemian City
September 18, 2019
National Geographic has dubbed Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, “the world’s most bohemian city” for its resurgence as a bohemian cultural hearth.
PRESS RELEASE – Anaklia Development Consortium Says It Has Found New Potential Investors
September 17, 2019
Georgia’s Anaklia Deep Sea Port, which would be first deep sea port on the Black sea with the capability to connect central and eastern Asia with Europe, has received two new investors. The Anaklia Development Consortium, charged with overseeing construction, announced the two new investors will join current investors US based SSA Marine and Georgian based TBC Holding.
PRESS RELEASE – What’s behind a stratospheric tourism boom in the tiny European nation of Georgia
August 31, 2019
If you took a trip to Georgia in the last few years, you probably have a reasonably good idea of why. It might have been the call of the historic capital, Tbilisi, all ramshackle red roofs and fairytale castles, or on the strength of a rumor about the greatest wine scene you’d never heard of. Perhaps you read a honeyed New Yorker story about a seductive, herb-flecked cuisine, or saw the country on travel listicle after travel listicle—the New York Times, the Financial Times (paywall), CNN, National Geographic—and concluded that it was having a moment, and you wanted in.
PRESS RELEASE – Why Georgia came to Texas to recruit businesses — no, not that Georgia
June 22, 2019
Leaders from Georgia visited Texas last week dangling low taxes and an ease of doing business hoping to recruit local companies willing to broaden their investments. Mamuka Bakhtadze, Georgia’s prime minister, met with business leaders in Dallas last week trying to get them to consider investing in his country, more than 6,700 miles from North Texas. “Already 200 companies from America are doing business in Georgia,” said Bakhtadze in an interview for AA’s Inside Texas Politics to air 9 a.m. Sunday. He said Texas companies opened in the country a few months ago. Two are technology businesses.
PRESS RELEASE – Georgian PM granted status of honorary citizen of Dallas
June 15, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has been granted the status of honorary citizen of Dallas. PM Bakhtadze was awarded on behalf of the Mayor of Dallas Mike Rawlings after a meeting at the World Affairs Council of Dallas. Mamuka Bakhtadze thanked the Mayor of Dallas for the award and the State of Texas – for hospitality. He said receiving this award is very emotional for him and that it belongs to his people. I assure you that Georgia is and will always be your strong and loyal partner”, PM Bakhtadze stated.
PRESS RELEASE – PM Bakhtadze awarded title of honorary citizen of Dallas
June 15, 2019
The Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze, was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Dallas. According to the Prime Minister’s Press Office, Mamuka Bakhtadze was granted this status on behalf of Dallas Mayor Michael Scott Rawlings after his meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations. The Head of the Government of Georgia expressed his gratitude to the Dallas Mayor for the award as well as to the State of Texas for its hospitality.
NBC – Rowlett Woman Cured by Drinking Live Virus, Meets Prime Minister of Georgia
June 14, 2019
A North Texas woman was cured of an infection that antibiotics couldn’t kill. She traveled halfway around the world to find the cure in the form of a virus. On Friday, she got to thank the Prime Minister of Georgia in person for the life-saving treatment.
CBS – Listen in on the CBS Weekend Roundup Podcast, featuring the Prime Minister of Georgia
June 14, 2019
Georgia’s Prime Minister talks about Russian aggression.
PRESS RELEASE – USMCA impatience grows on Capitol Hill
June 13, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze is on a cross-country U.S. trip this week seeking to develop the “second pillar” of his country’s relationship with the U.S, he said: trade. He met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday and is planning a meeting with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross this morning. Georgia and the U.S. have long been national security partners, and Bakhtadze says he hopes American companies will begin to set up shop in the Caucasus nation.
PRESS RELEASE – Pompeo Reaffirms Strategic Partnership In Meeting With Georgia’s PM Bakhtadze
June 12, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze, who is visiting United States on June 5-14, met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to U.S.-Georgia “strategic partnership,” discussed NATO-Georgia relations, Georgia’s domestic reforms as well as regional security cooperation, according to U.S. Department of State. Secretary Pompeo also “reiterated U.S. condemnation of the occupation and steadfast support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
WASHINGTON EXAMINER – Georgia PM: We’ve Fought Together – Now Let’s Do Business
June 12, 2019
Georgia is a key strategic partner of the United States of America. At a time when some other countries are reassessing their relationship with the U.S., we want to strengthen our bond.
BOSTON STAR – Pompeo, Bakhtadze To Discuss U.S.-Georgia Ties In Washington.
June 11, 2019
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to meet with Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze in Washington on June 11 to discuss ‘a range of bilateral issues.’ In an interview on June 10, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili predicted that Tbilisi will regain control over the two regions, saying: ‘Gradually, I think, the population in the occupied territories, are understanding that the perspective is not in the north,’ that is, with Russia.
PRESS RELEASE – Pompeo, Bakhtadze To Discuss U.S.-Georgia Ties In Washington
June 11, 2019
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to meet with Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze in Washington on June 11 to discuss “a range of bilateral issues.” In making the announcement on June 10, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the United States “does not recognize” the legitimacy of the elections for the legislative body in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, and it “will not acknowledge their outcome.”
GEORGIA TODAY – Bakhtadze Promotes Georgian Economy at World Affairs Council in Seattle
June 10, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze is currently on an official visit to the United States of America. From June 4-June 15, Bakhtadze is meeting with representatives of major businesses in San Francisco, California, Seattle, Washington, and Dallas, Texas to promote Georgia as a business and investment location. He will also meet with high level government officials in Washington, DC. Bakhtadze will speak to the attendees of the 3rd Annual US-Georgia Strategic Partnership Conference, hosted by the US Institute of Peace on June 12.
PRESS RELEASE – Georgian PM: Country to become regional business hub
June 10, 2019
Georgian prime minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has said that his government will pursue a strategy to make Georgia a regional hub for tourism, international business, logistics, education and innovation, the Georgian press has reported. Speaking at the World Affairs Council in the US, the Georgian PM described his country as a role model in the region and invited American enterprises to make investments. “Thanks to our location, our immediate regional market offers access to half a billion people, we offer a truly unique and vital geographic location for American business to reach European and Asian markets,” he said.
PRESS RELEASE – PM Bakhtadze in US: Georgia is becoming economic hub in region
June 8, 2019
“Our strategy is to make Georgia a regional hub for tourism, for international business, logistics, education and innovations”, Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze told the audience at the World Affairs Council in Seattle on June 7. He said during the 28 years since Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union, the country tried to tread its own democratic course as an independent nation.
GEORGIA TODAY – PM Briefs Investment Fund Managers of US on Georgia’s Investment Climate
June 7, 2019
Georgia is a small country with a wide vision, located on the crossroad where the East meets the West, North Meets South, the oldest traditions meet innovations and modern technologies and where there are plenty of economic opportunities, Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze said in public speech during the meeting at the California Commonwealth Club.
PRESS RELEASE – PM says Georgia deserves NATO, EU membership
June 7, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze told the audience at the Commonwealth Club in California that he will try to make people remember Georgia with three figures: 1, 28 and 8,000.
PRESS RELEASE – Bakhtadze: EU, NATO membership is Georgia’s choice for civilization
June 7, 2019
Joining the EU and NATO is the civilization choice of the Georgian nation, Georgia deserves it, since we meet all the criteria, said Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze at the Commonwealth club in California, According to her, Georgia is an advanced and exemplary state among the countries of the Eastern Partnership, Georgia-online reported.
PRESS RELEASE – PM Bakhtadze in US: I’ll make you remember Georgia with three figures – 1, 28, 8,000
June 7, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze told the audience at the Commonwealth Club in California that he will try to make people remember Georgia with three figures: 1, 28 and 8,000. He said that 1 defines the historic moment for Georgia when the country elected the first female President Salome Zurabishvili last year. Moving on to the second figure Bakhtadze said that 28 years have passed since Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union.
PRESS RELEASE – PM says Georgia deserves NATO, EU membership
June 7, 2019
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze told the audience at the Commonwealth Club in California that membership in the European Union and NATO is the choice of the Georgian people and the country deserves this, Agenda.ge reports. Bakhtadze said he will try to make people remember Georgia with three figures: 1, 28 and 8,000.
PRESS RELEASE – Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze Visits U.S. to Strengthen Economic Ties
June 5, 2019
Prime Minister of Georgia H.E. Mamuka Bakhtadze begins a multi-city visit to the United States on Wednesday June 5, 2019, with the goal of increasing trade and economic ties between the two close strategic allies.