LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR TBILISI ... - LED

Due to the overlapping effects of regained independence and system transformation on
the other three universal processes both Georgia and Tbilisi are facing a great challenge.
Public officials as well as entrepreneurs and ordinary residents of Tbilisi must understand
the ongoing changes and their implications in order to take a maximum advantage of new
opportunities. They have to reduce the social costs to minimum and concentrate their
resources in the areas where the perspectives of growth are the most promising.
In order to strengthen the foundations of Georgia’s and Tbilisi’s new economic position
and to maximise the effects of the transformation system, it is vital to introduce the
following changes and reforms:
1. The deep reform of Georgian economy resulted in the fact that environment
regulators can facilitate establishing and running business on the terms equal to those
in the developed countries with market economy.
2. Building new transport and telecommunication infrastructures, that will connect
Georgia with the partners in the region and in the world, will make it possible to export
and import goods and services.
3. The reform of the education system and introducing the culture of life long learning to
instruct skilled workforce according to the standards of the global job market.
4. Investments in technical infrastructure and the city revitalisation make Tbilisi an
attractive place to live and do business.
1.2. Role of cities for national economy
City are the more and more powerful engines of the national and global economy. Two
key forces - the globalization and the commercialization of new information as well as
communications technologies - have been driving the massive changes and thus
restructuring cities. Globalization is linked to liberalized trade and the opening up of world
markets through organizations and agreements such as the Word Trade Organization or
the European Union. Global corporations continue to expand their role on the world stage
through expansion, mergers and acquisitions.
Globalization would not be possible if there had not been for the explosion of new
information technologies with mobile wireless communication, personal computers, and
networks of internet, intranet and extranet. All of these have made it possible to manage
facilities distributed around the world, for the labour to move more freely across national
boundaries, and for the information, currencies and transactions to flow smoothly to any
destination. As globalization proceeds, regional and national economies become more
closely intertwined. National boundaries have gradually become less relevant as
globalization and information technology have reduced the role of the nation state. Big
metropolises with skilled workforce, globally connected businesses have emerged as the
engines of the new economy.
Globalization, and intensive competition which is integral to it, has led to a massive
restructuring of regional economies. The widespread de-industrialization of cities,
particularly of urban cores, is clear evidence of this. As the global marketplace expands,
each city is forced to focus upon the few things that it is very good at, in which it can
successfully compete at a global scale.
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