LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR TBILISI ... - LED

After the collapse of Soviet Union Tbilisi is back on the way to its natural role in the
region as city on transportation paths between Europe and Asia. As it is was also in the
history Tbilisi is competing with Baku and Yerevan to be Caucasian key urban center for
international relations and services. In spite of development of cooperation and new
transportation connections with Turkey can be observed there are now big cities that can
compete with Tbilisi in the eastern part of Turkey. Tbilisi doesn’t have competitors in the
North because of relations with Russia and situation in Northern Caucasus. Situation in
Central Asia is more important for role of Tbilisi in the wider region. Dynamic changes in
the Central Asiatic countries create a new position of their cites. New economic situation
create a Kazakhstan and both its cities Astana and Almaty as regional leaders and key
regional urban centers. In result looking for Tbilisi regional role, Georgian capitol will
compete with mainly with Baku and Yerevan and Astana with Almaty.
Because of lack of current comparative data on cities, first report present some data on
neighboring countries and assessment of Tbilisi role is presented in report two when city
competitive factors are discussed.