Georgia is making a progress in reforms and developments. This posture contributed to the posting in the most recent report from World Bank Doing Business for 2011, ranking Georgia 12 out of 183 global economies in ease of doing business, and ranked 7 in dealing with construction permits.
The U.S. government has been in full support of these reforms and developments for a stronger Georgia, politically and economically. This support substantiated by various USAID projects to reinforce, strengthen, and institutionalize the progress for sustainable growth and development in Georgia.
The USAID Economic Prosperity Initiative project has conducted assessment on many business sectors in Georgia, including the construction sector, which is the subject matter in this report. Government of Georgia has already made significant progress in simplifying and streamlining administrative procedures for issuing construction permit and CO and adopted administrative part of construction legislation that meets international standards and best practices. However, Georgia still lacks construction technical standards. Therefore, EPI project initiated new scope of work, Assessment of Building Codes, Standards, and Regulations in Georgia, to address this very important issue. The focus of this report is to evaluate current Georgian building codes and standards and compare it to recognized international codes, make recommendations based on findings to bring Georgian construction industry to international level. The intent of this reform is to attract investors, discover local construction materials, boost market development, and build skills in planning, design, construction, and operation, which will contribute to job creation and prosperity.