Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, Koba Gvenetadze took part in the conference dedicated to the World Competition Day organized by the National Competition Agency of Georgia.

 

The event marked the signing of an agreement document between the five market regulators serving to promote the effective enforcement of competition policy and strengthen cooperation. Irakli Lekvinadze, Chairman of the National Competition Agency, Koba Gvenetadze, Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, David Narmania, Chairman of the GNERC, David Onoprishvili, Chairman of the State Insurance Supervision Service and Vakhtang Abashidze, representative of the Communications Commission, signed the mutual cooperation document. The purpose of the agreement was to hold an annual joint conference on competition policy, where the agencies would summarize the actions taken during the year and the results obtained.

 

 

Speaking at length about the importance of free and fair competition, Governor Gvenetadze underscored the significance of the issue in terms of economic growth and briefed the participants on the actions taken by the National Bank. "2020 was an important year for the National Bank of Georgia in terms of working on competition policies. Although the NBG already had a mandate to implement competition policy defined under the Organic Law, the amendments to the competition law in 2020 proved to be important enough to work on more in-depth policies and regulations. In 2021, we drafted and published two acts, based on the Competition Agency’s secondary legislation and international best practices. The drafting of the legal acts was made possible with the expert assistance of the World Bank and the active involvement of the Competition Agency and the financial sector, for which I once again thank the Agency and the World Bank. Promoting free and fair competition is becoming increasingly important both in the world and in the economic markets of Georgia, being one of the crucial factors for the free development of these areas and markets. On our part, we think that the effective implementation of the regulations will provide for greater transparency of the NBG’s competition-related functions and decisions,"- Governor Gvenetadze stated.

 

The event was attended by representatives of the Government and the Parliament, industry experts, representatives of local and international organizations, the diplomatic corps, the business sector, academia and civil society.