Baku. 6 March. REPORT.AZ/ It is very important for us today to meet with the Baku Business Factory (BBF) and sign the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC).
Report informs, Chairman of Georgia's Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), George Zviadadze said today at the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between BBF and GITA.
Zviadadze noted that the BBF is implementing a work dreamed in governments of many countries.
"Georgia has chosen a new path just like Israel. This is the way to create a community of "startup people" based on innovation. The only way to achieve the best future goals passes through it. We work with a number of companies, governments outside the Georgian borders and we give them our recommendations. We will do the same work also in Azerbaijan."
GITA Chairman also unveiled the reasons for startups' success in his country.
"We treat them as our own employees. We ask them what draws their attention in Dubai, Hong Kong, United States that we could to create the same ecosystem in. We listen to our people. This is the main reason of our success”.
Zviadadze also noted that the change in tax system of Georgia affected startups.
"We have also supported startups when changes occurred in the tax system. By paying 1% of a turnover up to 500,000 GEL (up to 350,000 AZN) in tax form, they can continue their activities. International organizations are already turning to Georgia and prefer to work in this system. We can also organize the meeting of Georgian economy minister and his assistants with startuppers for 25 minutes”, he said.
“We organize camps in Georgia, through which give them knowledge on how to design their own ideas. We invite young people who can write their projects after the training and when they prove that their ideas worth investing, we pay them $ 2,000 microgrant. In many cases, international consultants say there is no need to make a prepayment to those who doesn’t have a business plan. But we are trying to explain that these people are able to write a business plan later. In my opinion, their approach is often kills creative ideas. Banks today don't allocate money to "startups".
G. Zviadadze also noted that they have invested about 500,000 GEL (350,000 AZN) for successful startups.
"We allocate 100,000 GEL (70,000 AZN) to startups which are successful in business incubators. This is not a grant. We call it "matching grant". So, we also ask them to put up to 10% of their own money. When they put the amount of funds, we also allocate our funds. Those whose market share exceed 10%, we invite to our next trainings and help them to raise market share to 30-50%. We also have an opportunity to allocate up to 500,000 GEL for startups with market share up to 50%. We are doing so to help them go beyond the borders of Georgia.”