| Customs reforms heat up construction sector in Georgia
Georgian businessman Bacho Dolidze is turning post-Rose Revolution policy reforms into new opportunities. Starting in 2003, his company, the Consulting Group of Caucuses, has been laying new gas pipelines and repairing old ones, restoring gas to settlements that have long gone without.
As a businessman who has to import gas pipeline from Ukraine, Mr. Dolidze is very pleased with the new government’s reforms of customs administration. USAID’s Business Climate Reform project provided technical assistance in streamlining border clearance procedures, which it estimates will save businesses about $91 million annually. The World Bank reports customs reforms have reduced the time to import from more than 50 days in 2005 to 15 in 2006.
“Three years ago, to import anything, you had to visit 10 offices and pay someone extra money in each office for getting all your papers in order. It created a whole chain of corruption and delay that involved everybody. Today it’s much easier,” he said. “It’s very organized there now. There’s one office now, and we know in advance how much we’ll have to pay.”
Customs reforms and reduced tariffs are allowing Mr. Dolidze to do more with his capital and work faster, and he is expanding his business to take advantage of them. Ultimately, the beneficiaries of customs reform that let businessmen like Mr. Dolidze work more efficiently are their customers, such as the residents of the homes served by the new gas pipelines.
Among his current projects, Mr. Dolidze is working in two remote and extremely poor villages in Gardabani region, Nagebi and Lemmshveniera, where residents are desperate for the heat the new pipelines will provide. “Unemployment in villages is very high and the people are very poor. The villagers have not had any other heating source than chopping acres of trees in nearby forests for years,” Mr. Dolidze said. “Now no forest exists any more in that area.”
After winning government procurements, Mr. Dolidze hired 30 villagers who will earn about 400 GEL ($240) each for two months work. “They are making a gas pipeline for their own homes and getting paid for it.”
"I am counting the days until this blessed gas pipe comes into my kitchen and I am so happy," said one of his customers.
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