On 21 May, a grant agreement was signed between Georgia and the United States, based on which the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide Georgia with a grant of up to $67 million, with the possibility of increasing it to $330 million.
The signing ceremony of the grant agreement “For the Promotion of Sustainable Development of Georgia” was held at the Administration of the Government of Georgia. The Georgian government administration reported that within the framework of the grant agreement, projects are planned to be implemented in the following areas: conflict resolution and stabilisation, human rights, agriculture, private sector productivity, rule of law, democratic governance, civil society, basic education, social services, and environment.
While speaking on the occasion the US ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan noted that the agreement would strengthen democratic institutions and bring strong economic growth in the country. “This is a support proving our shared values and a program for development. It will strengthen Georgia’s resilience to external harms, strengthen democratic institutions, bring strong economic growth, create jobs and employment opportunities throughout the country. This will help create opportunities in many areas. A new program on energy security will be created, Georgia will be able to diversify its energy resources and reduce its dependence on Russia. We are working on new initiatives to increase economic opportunities, relations between peoples. This also includes communities outside the administrative boundary line. We will continue to invest in basic education beyond the $ 7 million that we are carrying out under the U.S. International Development Program, which began last year. A new program of civic education will be launched, which will create resources in the future to prepare staff in this field,” she highlighted.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili emphasised that the USAID’s support to Georgia has amounted to $ 1.8 billion already. “About 335 programmes have already been implemented in the fields of agriculture, energy, infrastructure, environment, education and health,” he added.
