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Georgia Makes Significant Strides in Financial Inclusion and Crime Reduction with EU and World Bank Support

Tbilisi, September 26, 2023

The European Union (EU) and the World Bank have hailed Georgia’s progress in advancing financial inclusion and accountability, thanks to a €4 million project aimed at boosting private sector development and enhancing financial inclusion. The initiative, which concluded today after four years of implementation, has helped create an enabling framework for capital and insurance market development, improved financial infrastructure, and promoted responsible financial inclusion.

Key Achievements

  • Created an enabling framework for capital and insurance market development
  • Improved financial infrastructure
  • Promoted responsible financial inclusion
  • Increased access to financial products such as credit and digital payments
  • Enhanced consumer protection supervision
  • Improved financial transparency of companies

Quotes from Experts

“The project has played an important role in improving financial inclusion for all and enhancing financial transparency of companies. It has helped build foundations for more competitive, transparent, and well-governed institutions and markets in Georgia.” - Miguel Sanchez, World Bank South Caucasus Program Leader for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions

“The EU’s support for Georgia’s reform agenda has been instrumental in boosting private sector development and delivering productivity, transparency, and financial inclusion gains for Georgian businesses.” - Catalin Gherman, Deputy Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation to Georgia

Project Highlights

  • Supported alignment of regulations with European Union standards
  • Launched fintech and financial consumer protection reforms
  • Strengthened partial credit guarantee program
  • Initiated financial infrastructure upgrades to promote digital payments and movable assets-based lending
  • Advanced insurance market development

Financial Reporting Reforms

A key component of the project was strengthening financial reporting of enterprises, which aimed to improve financial transparency for better access to financial services. As a result:

  • 85% of medium-sized enterprises and 91% of small enterprises submitted reports correctly
  • International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) training courses were rolled out for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Acknowledgments

Georgia’s progress in financial reporting reforms was acknowledged in the 2022 Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes in Accounting and Auditing, which provides new recommendations on further enhancement of the institutional framework for corporate and State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) financial reporting.

Partnerships

The project was implemented in close cooperation with:

  • National Bank of Georgia
  • Ministry of Finance
  • Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development
  • Insurance State Supervision Service of Georgia
  • State Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision
  • Other private and public stakeholders