BRINGING HOME A BILLION

Investor.ge speaks with Irakli Matkava, the new director of the Georgian National Investment Agency, about how the government plans to bring in over a billion dollars in 2010.

Marketing success

Irakli Matkava is back in Tbilisi, after a whirlwind trip to Egypt with Prime Minister Nika Gilauri and Economic Minister Zurab Pololikashvili.

The 29 year-old investment chief is looking to Egypt – as well as the Gulf countries, China, India, and South Korea – to help boost investment in Georgia.

Irakli Matkava

“We are starting to work with China and India, trying to open the door,” he said. “I would say awareness of Georgia is not that high in those areas, in terms of Georgia as an investment destination, so we need to kind of open those doors.”

According to Matkava, GNIA forecasts $1.2 billion for 2010.

“I would say that is quite an increase from the last year, and an increase that is higher than is expected globally,” he said. “With our forecast we are outpacing the global pace – I think that is a realistic target.”

Global corporations are also on the agency’s monitor: Matkava said there is a major corporation “looking” at a wide variety of fields for investment, including power plants, as well as investors from the Middle East looking at possible deals in the agriculture market. Matkava said the agency is using a mixture of direct advertising and promoting investment successes to attract new players.

Being more proactive – and more aggressive – about going after investment dollars has become a “necessity of life,” he said.

“[During] the first half of 2008, the last half of 2007 – FDI boomed. You did not have to be active to attract that,” Matkava explained. “Now it is different. Now competition globally for every single investment dollar is a lot tougher than it used to be and there are less and less investment dollars.  You just have to be proactive.”

Drawing from his marketing background, Matkava is introducing more focused marketing techniques, like direct mailings to hand selected companies, rather than the blanket approach used previously.

The selection process is underway right now, he said, and his staff is researching companies, sectors and investment potential to identify “which buttons to press” to motivate corporations to choose Georgia.

“It will probably decrease the quantity of the companies we contact during the year but it will increase the quality,” he said.

Banking on best practices

Matkava is the second appointment to head the agency in under two years and the fifth in three years. He said one of his goals is to introduce a work system – research database, work flow, etc – that will help the agency modernize and improve regardless of who is manning the director’s chair.

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