THE STATE REPRESENTATIVE ADMINISTRATION

With the support of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, the Administration of the State Representative in Imereti and all 12 municipalities, the Ministry developed the initial draft of the "Smart Specialization Strategy of the Imereti Region".

A meeting was held in the administration of the State Representative in Imereti, where the initial draft of the "Smart Specialization Strategy of the Imereti Region" was discussed.

Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia Mzia Giorgobiani and State Representative Zviad Shalamberidze introduced the project to the heads of municipalities and discussed in detail the needs of business promotion.

The priority 4 main directions (domains) of Imereti's smart specialization strategy have already been defined.

▶️ Mining of metal ores, production of basic metals and finished metal products
▶️ Timber processing, production of wooden products and furniture
▶️ Food industry (including agribusiness, meat processing and Horeca sector)
▶️ Production of textiles, shoes, leather goods

Under the auspices of the Smart Specialization Program, since 2020 preparatory work has been actively underway for the development of the Imereti Smart Specialization Strategy, within the framework of which quantitative and qualitative mapping studies of the economic and innovative potential of Imereti were conducted, as a result of which four priority areas with high economic and innovative potential were identified for the coming years (so-called domain).

The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, in accordance with the summary document of the 2018 EU-Georgia high-level meeting, and subsequently, taking into account the corresponding thematic obligations stipulated by the 2021-2027 association agenda with the European Union, in close cooperation with the relevant state agencies of Georgia and the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission , works in the direction of piloting/implementation of one of the advanced mechanisms of EU regional policy planning and implementation - Smart Specialization (S3) platform in Georgia, specifically in the Imereti region.