Belt and Road Initiative offers great opportunities, says Georgia's vice-PM

Georgia in the Belt and Road Initiative

Georgia is in a strategic position along the key route between Asia and Europe under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Explaining why the initiative is so important, Kumsishvili said it provides great opportunities in trade, investment and people-to-people exchanges.

"The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Coordination are the core values of our country and absolutely what we value, because this is very close to our hearts," he said. "Mutual and beneficial cooperation is a win-win game."

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, aims to create greater trade, infrastructure and people-to-people links between Asia, Europe, Africa and beyond by reviving and expanding the ancient Silk Road routes.

Fruitful bilateral cooperation 

Kumsishvili said meetings with Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan and Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng during his visit in Beijing were "fruitful".

"Along with the free trade agreement, we have already signed several very important agreements and memorandums on joining free industrial, technological and trade zones with the Ministry of Commerce," he said.

In November, there will be an expo in Shanghai and Georgia will be present to promote Georgian products in the Chinese market, Kumsishvili said.

"Georgia is the homeland of wine, and the number of bottles of wine we sold to the Chinese market last year increased significantly to 7.2 million bottles, and we hope that after the free trade agreement is brought into force the number will double or triple in the near future," he added.

Kumsishvili said he agreed with the Chinese minister of transport to work a little more to promote the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor), which runs through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

"It connects China to Europe, and it takes seven to 12 days to bring cargo from Asia to Europe," he said. "We also agreed that on the road transportation we can strengthen cooperation and deepen our relationship."

A flagship project of the corridor, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, was inaugurated on Oct 30, 2017 in Azerbaijan.

The 826-kilometer line will have the capacity to annually transport 1 million passengers and 5 million tons of freight at the initial stage.