Business in Georgia?

October 22, 2009 2:23 PM

I'd like to find out what the climate is like in Georgia -- the country, not the state -- for an American business looking to expand overseas. But when I Google for it, I keep getting results for the state!

From what I understand, it's a fairly Western-oriented economy -- low on taxes and bribes, a not-unreasonable amount of bureaucracy, that sort of thing. But beyond looking at the Transparency International ratings, I'm having trouble finding actual data. Can MeFi help?

posted by wandering steve to work & money (21 comments total)

What if you search for a particular city in Georgia? For example, Tbilisi? I found this on Weather Underground
posted by sotalia at 2:27 PM on October 22

(Though that's actually weather, not climate...)
posted by sotalia at 2:29 PM on October 22

Can you be more specific in what you are looking for? This will help you get fewer overviews of the economy from schmucks like me who just want to point you toward wikipedia.
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 2:29 PM on October 22

you could try something like "georgia -united -america -atlanta"
posted by gagglezoomer at 2:29 PM on October 22

(shoot, sorry...I totally missed the more inside part of your question. It's been a long day.)
posted by sotalia at 2:37 PM on October 22

CIA factbook?
posted by mr_roboto at 2:38 PM on October 22

wocka wocka wocka: To be more specific -- the company I work for (which offers third-party customer service) is looking to expand into the European market, and it seemed to me that Georgia offered some pretty decent opportunities to avoid EU regulation while keeping a fairly Western standard; ie: we're not going to be dealing with Russian or Azerbaijani-style bribe expectations or suchlike. I'm especially looking for corruption ratings that are more specific than Transparency International, which has as much to do with levels of democracy as it does with economic issues. Getting information on education could be helpful as well, as far as what we can expect on levels of English proficiency, but I have a better sense of that, and it's a bit easier to find; Google searches for "Georgia business climate" and similar don't really bring up helpful results.
posted by wandering steve at 2:40 PM on October 22

Try googling Sakartvelo (საქართველო) weather.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:41 PM on October 22

This seems like a resource-rich page.
posted by Behemoth at 2:49 PM on October 22

How about starting with the Economist? That's an English-language source that's more likely to be talking about the country than the state. I found this 2008 article (not an Economist article) by Googling [georgia economic site:economist.com] and then clicking around. (Most recent stories about Georgia in the Economist are probably about the conflict with Russia, but not necessarily all.)

Also, it would help if you could clarify whether you already checked the standard sources for researching a country, like Wikipedia (and the links provided therein) and CIA Factbook. If so, did you find them insufficient?
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:51 PM on October 22

(Oh, and googling Republic of Georgia or Georgian Republic returns more relevant results than just Georgia.)
posted by Behemoth at 2:52 PM on October 22

Jaltcoh: thanks for the Economist info - don't know why that had slipped my mind. Wikipedia and the CIA Factbook seemed more focused on what business is currently done in Georgia -- it didn't tell me much about the climate for doing business there. For example, will there be a significant amount of bribery expected to be able to get an office going? Will the local bureaucrats who control the paperwork all need a cut before things get approved? How capricious is the government -- are they going to decide to nationalize the business on a whim?

For reference also, the Tbilisi Municipal Portal has been fairly helpful in laying out the taxes and paperwork needed to start a business there, but doesn't tell me much about corruption levels.
posted by wandering steve at 2:58 PM on October 22

Perhaps google newsing a string like "georgia country corruption" would be fruitful? Or set up an alert when the topic comes up? Or try "Saakashvili government anti-corruption."

I also found this.

Also of course look through BBC news for anything about Georgia which will also be more current that a government run statistician machine...I think.
posted by wocka wocka wocka at 3:00 PM on October 22

Power Trip is an excellent documentary about a U.S. owned power company setting up shop in Georgia around 1999.
posted by fixedthefernback at 3:07 PM on October 22 [1 favorite]

For a pretty decent general overview, check the CIA World Fact Book:


For some good links about the state of corruption in Georgia, see here:

The UN, IMF and WB put out some pretty good analyses of corruption. I googled, "united nations business corruption in georgia" and found quite a few good resources.
posted by fyrebelley at 3:08 PM on October 22

Library of Congress Country Study?
posted by mr_roboto at 3:09 PM on October 22

Have you seen this or this?
posted by oceano at 4:13 PM on October 22

re: LoC country study - totally out of date.
posted by k8t at 4:40 PM on October 22

The World Bank's Doing Business project provides a list of contacts (including web resources) here.

USAID funds several business climate reform projects in Georgia, some of which emphasize foreign direct investment. You can find selected publications produced by those projects at the Development Experience Clearinghouse. Under 'subject' select 'Economics (All)' and under 'country' select Georgia.

A sample project:


Georgia Business Climate Reform, 2005-2009
U.S. Agency for International Development, $12,953,000
Once ranked No. 112 on the World Bank’s “Doing Business” survey, bold reforms to Georgia’s business climate have catapulted it to 18th place in 2007. A commitment to aggressive reform by the Government of Georgia and support from Chemonics underpin what the World Bank calls an “unprecedented” climb in the history of the survey, moving Georgia past countries such as France and Germany. With Chemonics’ assistance, in two years the Georgian government has pushed through the type of reforms that typically take eight to 12 years. The project estimates that these reforms can be translated into $360 million in annual monetized benefits to the public and private sectors, which is a return of $40 for every dollar spent on the project. These results — as well as the project’s methodology for quantifying the economic benefits of the reforms — have helped to generate political will and identify priorities. In addition to fiscal reform in customs and tax, the project also provides assistance in regulatory streamlining and commercial law.
Risk-management system makes customs clearer in Georgia
Georgian children have reason to cheer reforms
Customs reforms heat up construction sector in Georgia
Online registry reduces bureaucratic burden for businesses
posted by charmcityblues at 5:01 PM on October 22

And here are the rest of the Doing Business results. As of 2009, Georgia is ranked 11th in the world!

Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 – 183, with first place being the best. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business. This index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings are from the Doing Business 2010 report, covering the period June 2008 through May 2009.
posted by charmcityblues at 5:03 PM on October 22

There's some endemic corruption, but not as much as you'd find typically in this part of the world. The challenge with Georgia is the security situation, although depending on your business that may be either a huge concern or pretty inconsequential. There is a significant amount of opportunity both in the region and in Georgia specifically.

If you're looking to do outsourced customer service, though, you may want to consider Africa; they need the jobs more and are starting to be able to really deliver with the advent of more high speed connectivity. In addition, certain parts of Africa are not only substantially cheaper to operate in but also may be substantially smarter in some areas.

I don't have any resources to suggest a source, but I think retaining an international business consultant with experience in the region would be a smart idea as part of your preparations.
posted by arimathea at 6:50 PM on October 22