Development Prospects for Transit Potential of Georgia

Abstract

The present paper studies the transit potential of Georgia and developing perspectives. It's noted, that strengthening of transit energy corridor is of great importance for Georgia due to its strategically important geographical location. Thanks to its transit and energy corridors, Georgia gained the status of the country that supports balancing of economic interests between European and Asian countries. Favorability of the country's geographical location has been proved and increased since the establishment of Baku-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelines. Besides these two geo-economically strategic pipelines of international importance, there are two exceptionally important gas pipelines running through the territory of Georgia: the North-South or Shah Deniz and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines. Strategically important Georgian ports and terminals such as Batumi, Poti and Kulevi have direct connections with railway lines of Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria. Development of port infrastructure is one of the priorities for Georgia. For this purpose, construction of deep-water port in Anaklia is of special importance. The government of Georgia has already called for investors to express interest in this project. Full utilization of its transit capacity will be beneficial for Georgia both from political and economic point of view. Due to its geopolitical location, Georgia turned out to be in the area of strategic interests of the US, EU, Russia, Turkey, Iran and China. As a result, developed countries have begun to actively cooperate with Georgia with the purpose of utilization of their predominant geopolitical and economic importance. Georgia is developing multilateral relations directed to global integration and the transit potential is one of the main preconditions of achieving competitiveness in these processes. The country has good opportunities for economic prosperity and rapid growth. The main task in this regard is to avoid threats by careful maneuvering and suggest mutually beneficial economic projects based on equal partnership to the international community. All this makes it possible to introduce economic, social, political, legal and other kinds of achievements of the West adapted with national values in Georgia. The paper concludes that due to its strategically important location Georgia is given an opportunity to become actively involved in global integration processes and use the benefit gained from these processes to ensure high rates of economic growth and increase in the competitiveness of the country.