On 29 August, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a €35.7 million project to support Georgia’s digital advancement through the Log-in Georgia Project, reported georgiatoday. It is foreseen that over 1,000 Georgian villages receive high-quality, affordable internet connectivity through the project.

The Log-in Georgia Project aims to promote the use of broadband-enabled digital services across rural Georgia and to boost the use of digitally enabled services through training and capacity-building programmes across the country. The project would be implemented by the non-commercial legal entity Open Net over a five-year period. 

“The World Bank supports Georgia’s goal of harnessing digital technologies to increase its economic competitiveness and thus provide better jobs and opportunities for all its people,” said the World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus Sebastian Molineus after the approval of the project. “This will help accelerate Georgia’s economic development, further cement its position as an innovation hub and investment attractive country and ensure a resilient recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added. 

Georgia’s Finance Minister Ivane Matchavariani said the project seeks to ensure that people and enterprises in rural areas have the same access to opportunity as their urban counterparts. The country’s Economy Minister Natia Turnava noted that the World Bank’s support to the Government of Georgia “in the context of the crisis and particularly in the measures taken to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, is especially outstanding” in addition to the Log-in Georgia project.

Currently the World Bank has 6 ongoings projects in Georgia, 1) the Economic Management and Competitiveness Development Policy Operation: Covid-19 Supplemental Financing, 2) Technology Transfer Pilot Project; 3) Additional Financing for the Second Regional and Municipal Infrastructure Development Project; 4) Georgia Emergency Covid-19 Response Project, 5) Economic Management and Competitiveness Development Policy Operation, and 6) Additional Financing for Irrigation and Land Market Development Project.