On September 11, 2023, the Facebook page “Solidarity for Peace” published a post, noting that the volume of foreign direct investments made in Georgia in the second quarter of 2023 amounted to 505.7 million USD. The post emphasizes the fact that in the same period, twice as much investment was made from Russia than from the US, in the amount of 28.1 million dollars and 15.5 million dollars, respectively. In addition, the photo attached to the post features the following caption: “Russia’s investment in Georgia is almost twice as much as that of the US.”
The statistics, which reflect the data for the second quarter of 2023, are cited correctly; however, it is worth noting that a similar picture is mainly found in the second quarter in recent years. In the last 20 years, investments from the US have significantly exceeded that of Russia, and according to the data of both quarters of 2023, American investments exceed that of Russia by 15 million USD.
Despite the fact that according to the data of the second quarter of this year, the number of direct investments coming from Russia is more than that of the US, it is worth noting that the trend of recent years, including the first quarter of 2023, gives us a completely different picture. From 2016 to 2023, except for 2021, investment from the United States always exceeded that of Russia. From 2003 to the present, the amount of Russian investment exceeded the American one only for seven years. This was observed in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2021, and according to the data of the remaining 13 years, American investments were significantly higher than Russian ones. During the mentioned 20 years, the amount of investments from the US in Georgia amounted to 1,602,603.6 billion USD, and from Russia 1,007,017.5 billion USD.
Notably, in the second quarters of the last three years, the Russian investment always exceeded that of the US, although the situation changed radically in the third-fourth quarter. As a result, in 2022, the investment made from the US was almost 70 million USD more than the Russian one, and according to the data of both quarters of the current year, this number is 15 million more than that of Russia.
In the document, one can find is a minus (-) sign next to some countries, which is explained in the GeoStat methodology as follows:
The value of FDI can be both positive and negative, the reasons for which could be:
– Increase or reduction of equity/share capital;
– Profit or loss of an enterprise;
– Receiving or repaying a loan of nonresident direct investor;
– Purchase of a share by nonresident from a resident enterprise or, conversely redemption of a
share by a resident from a nonresident;
– Distribution of dividends.
According to GeoStat data, in the second quarter of 2023, the United Kingdom took the first place in terms of investments, followed by Turkey, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Malta. Russia and the US are ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.
It should be noted that Great Britain has been the largest investor in Georgia since 2003, having invested a record amount of money in the country in 2021, namely – $605.7 million.
In 2016-2022, the results are distributed as follows:
1) United Kingdom: 2,104,178.8; 2) Azerbaijan: 1,290,102; 3) Netherlands: 1,280,220.7; 4) Turkey: 930,779.4 5) US: 654,006.6; 6) Czech Republic: 474,101.9; 7) Russia: 459,995.8; 8) Luxembourg: 409,621.30; 9) United Arab Emirates: 306,621.7; 10) Ireland: 258,067.9.
| Countries | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Great Britain | 87,849.5 | 249,032.4 | 183,310.0 | 238,087.1 | 303,252.3 | 605,693.8 | 436,953.7 |
| Azerbaijan | 555,138.2 | 460,502.2 | 246,713.3 | 38,955.4 | -16,346 | 3,420,2 | 1,718,7 |
| Netherlands | 77,343.8 | 356,181.7 | 212,637.9 | 87,916.0 | 203,576.1 | 146,410.4 | 196,154.8 |
| Turkey | 220,272.2 | 256,153.0 | 49,195.8 | 169,717.4 | 79,899.0 | 100,427.2 | 55,114.8 |
| US | 59,817.1 | 79,115.3 | 104,964.1 | 115,728.1 | 98,968.8 | 18,917.6 | 176,495.5 |
| Czech Republic | 87,541.3 | 131,678.2 | 77,696.0 | 18,280.2 | -6,340.1 | 80,773.0 | 84,473.3 |
| Russia | 28,497.6 | 52,386.4 | 83,377.0 | 62,991.3 | 42,208.7 | 82,434.9 | 108,117.9 |
| Luxembourg | 115,750.4 | 103,192.2 | 50,136 | 69,590.2 | 22,006.4 | 34,929.4 | 14,016.7 |
| United Arab Emirates | 55,294.3 | 146,905.8 | 33,391.8 | 25,612.3 | -13,861,5 | 31,259.2 | 28,019.8 |
| Ireland | -350.6 | 190.5 | 3,157.7 | 133,241 | 195.1 | 1,078.5 | 120,555.7 |
Source: GeoStat
In 2021-2023, according to the sectors of the economy, the largest investments were made in financial and insurance activities, energy, manufacturing, arts, entertainment and recreation, trade and real estate.
“Solidarity for Peace”
The Facebook page “Solidarity for Peace” belongs to the movement of the same name, which is an organization related to the pro-Russian party ” Alliance of Patriots of Georgia.” The page distributes recordings of programs broadcast on the movement’s TV channel and posts voicing anti-Western and pro-Russian narratives.
It should be noted that the organization had two other Facebook pages in the past, which are no longer available. The current Facebook page was created on March 20, 2015, with a completely different name and was named “Solidarity for Peace” on June 21, 2023. Most likely, the page previously belonged to someone else, because the names of the page were quite different from the content of the organization – at first, the name of the page was “We like the work of David Sergeenko,” and then “History.”
For more information about the organization, see the article prepared by “Myth Detector:”
