When he swept to power in Georgia at the head of the Rose Revolution three years ago, President Mikheil Saakashvili inherited an economy stifled by widespread corruption, heavy-handed bureaucracy and trade restrictions imposed by its giant neighbor, Russia.
Tensions with Russia persist, but Georgia’s economy is showing unprecedented dynamism. Saakashvili’s success in combating corruption, cutting red tape and fostering entrepreneurial activity won recognition last month when the International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank, ranked Georgia 18th in its annual survey on the ease of doing business. That was just behind Switzerland and Estonia and ahead of Belgium and Germany -- and far ahead of 106th-place Russia. The International Monetary Fund projects that Georgia’s economy will grow by at least 10 percent this year.
Saakashvili, 39, trumpeted the improvement, which was announced while he was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The ranking “shows there are no hopeless cases,” he told a forum at Columbia University.
