Prague, July 24 (CTK) – Georgia offers big opportunities to Czech firms in various environment-related fields, Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec (ANO) told CTK after a meeting with his Georgian counterpart Gigla Agulashvili with whom he signed three memoranda on Friday.
“The potential for Czech firms is big. It includes ten major fields such as raw materials and geology including water deposits, wastes, nature and air purity,” Brabec said.
Brabec said Georgia is now dealing with the same problems former Czechoslovakia had before the communist regime was toppled at the end of 1989.
Georgia is one of the countries that receive Czech foreign development aid, it has signed the association agreement with the EU and it has many donors.
Brabec and Agulashvili also spoke about adaption to climatic change, environmental damage and current nature protection.
Agulashvili told CTK that the Georgian government is dealing with many problems, including illegal tree cutting and illegal fishing.
During the Russian-Georgian war, the Borjomi-Kharagauli national park spreading on almost 900 square kilometers was devastated. Around 80 hectares have already been restored.
The memoranda signed on Friday provide for further cooperation supported by the Czech Development Agency. In 2013, bilateral projects within Czech development cooperation were carried out in Georgia. They were worth 21 million crowns. One year later the figure was more than twice as high, or 43 million crowns.
Czech-Georgian projects until 2017 are to be worth 36 million crowns annually. The biggest project as yet focused on the management of Georgian national parks and it was worth one milion euros. It was also participated in by Austria.
