One of the most influential factors that would stimulate Georgia’s economic growth would be for Georgian companies to have increased access to credit. Currently, the Georgian financial sector offers companies a similar array of standardized credit facilities to finance companies in three main areas: working capital, fixed assets and real estate.
While the currently available credit instruments represent a large percentage of corporate financing activities, additional financial instruments are necessary to stimulate rapid industrial growth, including purchase order financing (POF), factoring and a warehouse receipt program (WRP).
EPI has identified the development of Georgia’s small and medium enterprise (SME) business sector as one of its main priorities and is in the process of developing several initiatives to stimulate further growth in this sector. Specifically, one of EPI’s goals is to eliminate barriers that SME’s currently face in accessing credit facilities for working capital and business expansion initiatives.
This consultancy will identify the positions of Georgia’s major commercial FI’s and their willingness and capacity to introduce these new products. By identifying these variables, EPI can best assess how to direct its resources and personnel in developing new programs to increase Georgian companies’ access to credit facilities and, therefore, to stimulate economic growth.