Civil Georgia, Tbilisi

President Saakashvili said on April 13, that by issuing of second USD 500 million Eurobond to refinance the previous one, Georgia lengthened debt maturity till 2021, which was “a well-done job… worth of congratulation.”

He said while meeting with PM Nika Gilauri that issuing of Eurobonds also demonstrated “a huge interest of international investors” towards Georgia against the background that economies of such countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Iceland “have collapsed”.

“Most of the investors no longer trust such countries and suddenly Georgia managed to achieve the most successful rescheduling and lengthening of debt [maturity] in such difficult conditions,” Saakashvili said.

He said that given the pace of Georgia’s development, repaying of this debt by 2021 would not be a problem.

Saakashvili also said that despite of consequences of the August war and global economic crisis “now the trust towards Georgia is higher than it was before the war.”

“This is directly a result of creating in Georgia a very easy environment for doing business; we have astonished everyone that our economy did not collapse in previous years… because we managed to do the main thing, which neither Greece, nor many other European countries managed to do; we created a completely non-corrupt environment in the country at all levels – otherwise, nobody will give you money. Investors know it well, that the government at all levels is non-corrupt. And the second, besides the fact that we are the first world reformers in this region, which includes Eastern and Central Europe, entire post-Soviet space and our neighborhood, we are the country, where it is easiest to do business,” Saakashvili said.

“Because of this work that we have done, we are now trusted,” he added.

“Our ill-wishers were saying that Georgia has really developed but in at some point it will have to repay its debts and it will obviously collapse. Now, no one has anything to say - there is no problem of debt within next many years and we have all the criteria to continue development,” Saakashvili said.

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