Japan has earmarked 220 billion yen of its coronavirus stimulus relief to go toward helping its manufacturing companies move their production plants out of communist China and back to Japan or to other countries.

As the founder of Anaklia Development Consortium, leader of the political union Lelo for Georgia, Mamuka Khazaradze said, “this is a new window of opportunity to attract serious investments to Georgia. “A concrete example is the port of Anaklia and the free economic zone in Anaklia,” he added.

Former special advisor to the Secretary of State, American analyst Paul Goble said that Georgia must be active in every possible direction.

“Because of the pandemic, everything is so unsettled that it is uncertain whether Japan will come through with as much or as soon as it has promised. I think the Japanese have a double interest, promoting their own routing and ensuring that the entire east-west route doesn’t pass under Chinese or, less likely, Russian control. This push will help Georgia, but no one should expect big movement until early next year at the earliest given the pandemic. Georgia needs to take advantage of all the opportunities it has, including some that may not bear fruit immediately. But I think, Georgia must be active in every possible direction. Others are much less so now and so Tbilisi has a chance to get ahead”, Paul Goble told the Accent.