According to the World Bank report „Investing Across Borders 2010“ (IAB) Georgia is one of the most open countries to foreign equity ownership among 87 countries as measured by the Investing Across Sectors indicators. „Investing Across Borders 2010“ presents cross-country indicators analyzing laws, regulations, and practices affecting foreign direct investment (FDI) in 87 economies. The indicators focus on 4 thematic areas - measuring how foreign companies invest across sectors, start local businesses, access industrial land, and arbitrate commercial disputes. The indicators combine analysis of laws and regulations, as well as their implementation. They explore differences across countries to identify good practices, facilitate learning opportunities, stimulate reforms, and provide cross country data for research and analysis.
Georgia for all of the 33 sectors covered by the indicators is fully open to foreign investment. There are neither sectors with monopolistic or oligopolistic market structures nor any perceived difficulties in obtaining any required operating licenses. With only 4 procedures and 4 days, Georgia (Tbilisi) is among the fastest countries in the world in terms of establishing a foreign owned limited liability company (LLC). A foreign company requires no additional procedure other than the authentication of the parent companys documents abroad. According to the new order on the Approval of Instruction on State and/or Tax Registration Procedure of Taxpayers and Branches, a company must be registered on the same day of filing or the following day. The application is available online. Registering with the Entrepreneurial Register and obtaining an identification number and a certificate of state and tax registration are required in order to commence the companys activities.
Companies in Georgia are free to open and maintain bank accounts in foreign currency. There is no minimum capital requirement for foreign or domestic companies. Since 2008, evidence of contribution to the companys capital is no longer required. Foreign company can start a business in Georgia less than a week, in 4 days, while in Angola and Haiti establishing a subsidiary of a foreign company can take more than 6 months. Company can start business in Poland in 33 days, in Russian Federation – in 31 days, in Greece – in 22 days, in Bulgaria – in 20 days, in Armenia – in 18 days, in Turkey – in 8 days. It is remarkable, that companies cannot start business in shorter period than 4 days in none of investigated countries.
In Tbilisi registration of land related rights has become a simpler and quicker process due to a law adopted in 2008. Both privately and publicly held land may be leased or bought. Lease contracts can be of unlimited duration. There are no restrictions on the amount of land that may be leased. The time required to lease land from a private holder varies from about 1 week in Georgia to nearly 5 months in Poland. The time required to lease land from the government varies from 2 months in Kosovo to almost a year in Bulgaria, while in Georgia it can be done in 50 days.
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