Georgia wants to become the Hong Kong of the Black Sea

Serious television programs about economics have always been scarce, I guess, here in Europe and elsewhere. An excellent exception is the program "Riverside Conversations", produced by Dutch broadcaster VPRO. The program is presented by adventure capitalist en investment biker Jim Rogers. Tonight, he talked with Kakha Bendukidze (written as "Bendookidze" by the program makers), the new minister of economic reforms in Georgia, the Caucasian republic, and with Marc Faber, an economic historian and investment advisor. Bendukidze is a Russian busines man and advocates ultra-liberal economic reforms for Georgia.

Georgia is doing its best to attract international investments. Not passive portfolio investments, but active investors that want to work in the Georgian economy. Income taxes in Georgia have a flat rate of 17%. Agricultural land in the western part of the country is now for sale for 100 dollars per 1000 square meters. Citizenship is easy to acquire, and Bendukidze: "There are five million people in Georgia. Five million of them are in favor of economic reforms, and five million of them are against it". It seems that Georgians are suffering from the NIMBY-syndrome, "not in my back yard". Bendukidze wants to make Georgia "the Hong Kong of the Caucasus".

Marc Faber, an economic historian, questioned the fact that Georgia is putting all its eggs into the European basket. Russia and China are closer, and could be stronger future growth centers than Europe. Bendookize agrees, but says the choice for Europe is a political one. Because of the separatist movements (like the one in Abchazia) in the region, Georgia seeks political support from the United States and from Europe. "I do not want Georgia to be part of the European sclerotic civilization", Bendukidze says. "There is too much regulation in Europe. Our government has declared that it wants to put a lot of energy into economic cooperation and the harmonization of regulations with Europe in the next ten years. I fear that ten years may become an eternity", Bendukize admits.

The program can be seen via streaming. English spoken, Dutch subtitles. Go to the program page, the video links are in the rightmost column. You can choose Windows Media or RealMedia, broadband or narrowband.