Fostering Private Sector Engagement

In Georgia, the private sector is insufficiently engaged in national, regional, and local economic development processes. Accordingly, private sector engagement in economic decision-making is limited at the local level, which in turn leads to a lack of coordination and dialogue between the public and private sectors on local economic development issues.

Addressing this issue, the “Fostering Private Sector Engagement at the Local Level” project, run by Tetra Tech under USAID’s Local Governance Program, encompasses the following specific activities and objectives: private sector engagement; capacity-building activities; raising awareness about the advantages and opportunities of private sector engagement within municipalities; institutionalization of public-private dialogue (PPD) platforms in municipalities; identification and prioritization of private sector engagement projects at municipal and inter-municipal levels; and, significantly, developing a pilot municipal/inter-municipal public-private partnership (PPP) project concept. The project covers the following municipalities of Georgia: Batumi, Ozurgeti, Chokhatauri, Kutaisi, Mestia, Lentekhi, Tkibuli, Rustavi, Marneuli, Bolnisi, Dmanisi, and Oni municipalities. 

In particular, the following outcomes are expected of PMCG’s involvement in the project:

• Private sector engagement Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities in Each Municipality Assessed and Analyzed. This includes designing a list of stakeholders to be interviewed, devising questionnaires for key informant interviews (KIIs), and conducting interviews to establish the private sector engagement status quo and inform a landscape analysis report.
• Capacity-building Programs Tailored to the Particular Needs of Each Municipality Established and Awareness of Municipal Stakeholders About the Benefits and Opportunities of private sector engagement Improved. This entails developing capacity-building training programs for 12 municipalities, and conducting capacity-building training programs online for 10 to 12 participants from each municipality.
• Private sector engagement Prospectuses Published for Each Municipality.
• Key Stakeholders Identified and PPDs Institutionalized in Partner Municipalities.
• Private sector engagement Projects in Partner Municipalities Prioritized. This includes selecting two private sector engagement projects in each partner municipality, holding PPDs on specific private sector engagement projects, and selecting at least three inter-municipal private sector engagement projects.
• Private sector engagement Projects Selected in Partner Municipalities and Action Plans Devised for their Implementation.
• At Least One Pilot Municipal/Inter-municipal PPP Project Chosen.
• Main Findings, Outputs, and Lessons Learned from the Project communicated to high-level stakeholders.