It’s no easy feat attracting foreign investment when 27 countries are “born again” into global capitalism at the same time. Alongside other post-Soviet and east European states, Georgia has followed strict neoliberal reforms in order to attract investment - and although it has done so later than most other countries, its zeal makes it stand out in the crowd.
Successive Georgian governments have brandished their pro-business image proudly, even going out of their way to minimise or hide any government interventions. The rest of the world may have been shocked by the 2008 crisis, leading to various surges for statist or rightwing anti-liberals in protest against neoliberalism, but Georgia seems to be completely unaware. The country moves forward with reforms that far surpass any demands from regional and international financial organisations, such as flat income tax and private pensions - the latter often supported by local business associations.
Enter US company Frontera Resources, which has been exploiting Georgia’s oil and gas reserves since 1997, the time of Eduard Shevardnadze. In Georgia, Frontera was hardly noticeable until 2015 when the company claimed it had discovered huge reserves of gas in Dedoplistskharo, in the east of the country, and that new methods, mainly fracking, would be used to extract it. Since these claims were made, different audiences - investors, business, politicians - have started to pay attention to the company. After all, the apparent discovery could mean energy independence from Russia.
