The International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia condemns the arbitrary decision of the Russian Federation to stop direct flights from Russia to Georgia, as well as its decision to prohibit specific brands of Georgian wine from being imported into the Russian Federation. Although those arbitrary sanctions will have a limited impact on our economy, they will still affect many businesses that depend exclusively on Russian tourists or on the Russian market.
ICC-Georgia has mobilised its resources both domestically and internationally to ease the effects of those sanctions on Georgian businesses. A dedicated team was created to assist the Tourism Department of Georgia in its efforts to mitigate the drawbacks of those sanctions and to help Georgian wine producers find other markets internationally via the ICC global network in 130 countries. ICC-Georgia regrets the violent events that happened on June 20 and deplores the fact that more than 220 people were wounded that night. ICC-Georgia believes that peaceful protests are an expression of a healthy democracy; by the same token extending those protests in time will have serious damaging effects on business and economy and will impact equally all Georgians from every side of the political spectrum.
ICC-Georgia calls on Government, political parties and Civil Society to engage in a constructive dialog to address swiftly and fairly the demands of the Georgian people in the wake of the June 20 events. Maintaining daily rallies in the streets could become more damaging to business and to the economy than Russian sanctions. ICC Georgia is the largest and most vocal global Business Association in the country; it includes over 350 corporate and youth members and 28 business associations. The International Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in the world that includes over 6.5 million businesses and chambers of commerce. ICC consults regularly at the global level with the G8, G20, the World Bank, WTO, WCO and the UN.
