BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 10
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA) supports the development of the Capital market at various levels in diverse sectors, the GITA told Trend.
According to the source, the Government of Georgia has prioritized developing knowledge-based and innovation-driven economic development by institutionalizing the support schemes and establishing Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA) under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.
"The main mandate of GITA is to create an ecosystem and coordinate its development process; stimulate innovation, modern technologies and R&D, facilitate commercialization and usage of R&D; support to innovative start-ups and their competitiveness growth, facilitate cooperation between the representatives of scientists and businesses," the agency said.
According to it, GITA is providing access to finance for innovative projects, also supports R&D commercialization and technology transfer. In this regard, together with the awareness-raising and training programs, GITA provides access to finance by different types of grant programs.
"In this direction, the Government is providing the pre-seed and seed stage financing for startups, covering the risks, and enhancing their skills for further investment opportunities. Since 2016 the support from the World Bank Group was secured for the Project - Georgia National Innovation Ecosystem (GENIE) in the amount of $23.5 million," the GITA noted.
As reported, the main objective of the project is to increase innovative activities of the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), including startups, and individuals in Georgia and their participation in the digital economy. It includes a) access to finance – issue the grants for SMEs and innovative projects; b) scale up the infrastructure projects in the region; c) enhance skills and capacity by providing pieces of training and mentorship programs for startups by providing different types of incentives.
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