The AYFB held first business council meeting

30.05.2018 | Read 1424 times



The AYFB held first business council meeting

In the format of the new Business Platform of the Association of Young Financiers and Businessmen, at the meeting held in Radisson, the challenges in the financial sector were discussed. The members of the AYFB business council are large and medium -small businesses operating in Georgia, as well as representatives of NGOs and analysts. 
The meeting was attended by First Deputy Minister of Finance Giorgi Tabuashvili, Vice-President of National Bank Murtaz Kikoria and President of Banks Association Zurab Gvasalia. At the Business Council meeting, the relations between banks and business has been discussed. According to the statement of the AYFB president and business council moderator, the challenges of the financial sector were selected as a discussion topic for the first session because this issue is equally relevant to all layers of society and especially for business. 
We think that the format of the business council, where the parties with Civil sector involvement, are able to share their opinions, will become one of the successful and interesting formats between Business and relevant governmental institutions. Today's meeting of business council confirmed this expectation. Today in the country there is a problem with access to capital. The only source of attracting alternative capital is the bank. A sharp deficit of qualified business projects is another big issue. “Many interesting opinions were expressed during this meeting, which will be discussed by AYFB and on behalf of the Council members with Recommendations will be submitted to relevant governmental institutions. AYFB business council will regularly hold meetings, where all important issues related to business will be discussed. “ – stated Gulbani
“There hasn’t yet been a documented case in which a commercial banking sector, similar to one found in Georgia, which is funded by deposits and functions by depositors’ capital, has bloomed country’s economy,” states the vice-president of the National Bank, Murtaz Kikoria,
 
“Georgian bank sector is exceptional with its transparency, management and fund accessibility. However, companies working in non-banking sectors need to become more transparent, need to have good audits and direct access. Unfortunately, today government is forcefully obligating companies to publish audit reports. For those companies that operate on reserved funds, risks are high. Hence investors feel disinterested to work with those companies,”- states Kikoria
 
According to the principal of the association of banks, Zurab Gvasalia, the main problem is that the banking sector and other economic parties seem to have lots of misunderstandings when they discuss economic issues. They have trouble understanding one another. 

One of the members of the AYFB meeting, Irakli Iashvili, talked about improper ownership of assets by important figures of the banking sector. According to him, there is a big sense on mistrust in business. Precisely, when a businessman, who has the same type of asset as the bank does, approaches it with a business-plan, with big likelihood, he is not granted the funds to implement his plan. Or if he is, some circumstances are overstepped because the bank already knows what is going on inside his subsidiary company’s competitor company. 

The primary secretary of the minister of finance, Giorgi Tabuashvili, talked about the importance of events planned by the Ministry of Georgia which are supposed to aid the capital inflow and fund startup business companies. “Ministry is working hard with international financial organizations to find long-term credit resources. This should be beneficial for those businesses that have no access to bank loans”, - states Tabuashvili