Podcast with Tamar Sakheishvili 

Approaches of Sustainable Development in Poti Free Industrial Zone

Poti Free Industrial Zone, as a part of the “Smart Capital Group”, is the largest industrial zone in Georgia, which, with its strategic location and offers, stimulates investors and entrepreneurs to benefit from favorable tax conditions and bilateral free trade agreements of Georgia. 

Free Industrial Zone of Poti expands the entrepreneurial infrastructure in the region, making efforts for the growth of the employment index of the region. Its activities are directly related to such impacts as – labor rights, environment protection and safety. That is why managing these influences has a huge importance to “FIZ” while positioning itself as a responsible company.

On the important role of FIZ and other interesting projects, we offer an interesting podcast of Tamar Sakheishvili – the head of the investment attraction department of Poti FIZ:

Tamar, Poti Free Industrial Zone plays a rather important role in the socio-economic system of Georgia, which in itself is associated with great responsibility. What is your response mechanism to manage your influences and maintain responsible company image?

Poti Free Industrial Zone has been making an important contribution to the country’s economic development for 15 years already.

Up to 110 legal entities are registered in 300-hectare territory of Poti FIZ, however, it is planned to increase the number by 20% in recent year. Of course, the expansion of the number of enterprises and the specificity of their activities affects the ecosystem of the region, especially the environment.

Poti Free Industrial Zone makes its best effort to follow environmental legislation and standards in force at the national and international level. An environmental, health and safety policy has been elaborated in Poti FIZ, the fulfillment of which is a pre-requisite for starting business activities in Poti FIZ. The company actively monitors environmental and safety processes with contractor companies. These procedures are a mechanism for controlling the influences that the company applies in the process of its operation.

In addition to the mentioned, the activities of Poti FIZ directly respond to the social-economic goals of sustainable development, such as eradication of hunger, decent work and economic growth, women’s empowerment, healthy lifestyle and well-being. 

The labor and safety policy also operates in this direction, emphasizing that each employee is an important asset for Poti Free Industrial Zone. The company takes care of the team’s development and qualification on the regular basis, which is why team building is often held in the company, invited coaches hold sessions and seminars for different skills development. Employees enjoy the best health insurance package as well.

FIZ has created a safe work space where employees have to opportunity to openly address the company’s top management regarding issues important to them.

Have you implemented women’s empowerment practices in Poti FIZ?

Poti FIZ employs more than 600 people in the region. 90% of employees are women, mostly working in textile enterprises. Herewith, we are planning to start working on introducing gender-sensitive policies. We believe that the existence of these policies and the action plan will be an important leverage in terms of women’s empowerment.

There are special offers for female entrepreneurs in Poti Free Industrial Zone, which implies registering a company on preferential terms.

We believe that Poti Free Industrial Zone is allocating a lot of resources for achieving the goals of sustainable development, however, our future goals will be further refined, a number of useful initiatives will be introduced, which are already marked in the 2024 calendar.