Former Georgia Prime Minister, Nika Gilauri, on Tuesday urged Nigeria to open up its economy, saying it would act as catalyst for growth and development.
He said Georgia transformed its economy and created 20,000 jobs within six years through such practice.
Gilauri said his country became one of the highest exporters of cars even though it did not produce them.
“My advice is for Nigeria to go for a full, open economy,” he said.
Gilauri spoke at the third plenary session of the ongoing Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos.
The session had the theme: “The great debate: Managing client expectations.”
Gilauri also featured in the first plenary on Monday tagged: “Conversations with the Vice President,” where he urged Nigeria to step up Public- Private- Partnership (PPP), tax reforms, and adopt outsourcing to tackle corruption.
He said on Tuesday that Georgia’s open economy model was worth emulating.
The ex- prime minister added: “Developing countries need globalization and need to have very open economies in order to be part of this new technological revolution, which we are facing right now.
“In Georgia, we had very, very fast growth in a very short period of time. In 2004/2005, the main item of export of Georgia was scrap metal. We didn’t have oil.
“But within a six-year period after opening up our economy, the number one expert item of Georgia was cars, vehicles, even though we don’t produce any car.
“Because it was open economy, it was simple to Customs-clear the goods; it was simple to do all the transactions.
“Most of the car manufacturers around the world brought their cars to Georgia and traded them to the rest of our region.
“By making almost zero investment, by opening up our economy, taking out corruption, and by simplifying the rules, we created 20,000 jobs.
“This type of smart openness, smart regulations and fighting corruption, I believe, can be a very, very good way forward for Nigerian economy.”
Gilauri, who was Georgia’s prime minister from 2009 to 2012, as well as minister of energy (2004-2007) and finance (2007-2009), said opening up his country’s economy attracted the world’s biggest banks to open up branches in the country.
“For the past 15 years, what this kind of competition and openness did was make Georgian businessmen better. Foreign capital was brought to Georgia, and Georgians are managing it. Before then, we had two big Georgian banks doing nothing,” he stated.
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