USAID provided intensive technical and information encouragement for the process. For example, the Agency introduced in tax experts to simplify the filing system only once the administration was in a position to move. USAID also provided assessment, proposals, and launch assistance on laws, legal guidelines, and institutional capacity building in support of Georgia's dynamic reform agenda.
The rapid improvement seen in Georgia had another detail as well-years of experience and knowledge from USAID's work in other region of Central and Eastern Europe. Beginning with the earliest programs just after the fall of the Soviet bloc, USAID and its partners have built a deep bank of expertise that provides advantageous impacts around the world today.
In the Republic of Georgia of just a few years ago, McDonald's wasn't a fast food. The journey from production to plate used to be arduous and long. Along the Georgian border, McDonald's trucks could be spotted languishing-sometimes up to two or three days-waiting for customs officials to inspect and clear their cargo.
The task was as arbitrary as it was frustrating: "You could never say which terminal was better or worse. All were the same: a long physical review process, poor professionalism, flourishing bribery, and a permanent misusing of energy and nerves," according to Tamaz Megrelishvili, purchasing manager of McDonald's Georgian franchises and T&K Restaurants LTD.
Now, a series of customs reforms by the Ministry of Finance and the State Revenue Service have expedited clearance techniques, in part by promoting an helpful allotment of state resources. The information review previously undertaken on all freight were replaced by an automatic, risk-based system to recognise suspect products-with now only the 15 percent of products flagged as risky receiving physical review. By eliminating not needed inspections, this process has also reduced opportunities for crime.
The new system is straightforward, which allows managers like Megrelishvili to plan ahead of time: "When the cargo reaches the terminal, I can fix precisely the timeframe of all operations to be undertaken after the clearance process. Loaders, who waited for products in the garage for hours, sometimes even for days, can now enjoy a normal work schedule and go home in time."
In addition to the personal benefits for managers and loaders alike, the savings for businesses add up to an estimated $90 million annually.
The new customs regulations are just one of the many reforms that have moved Georgia from number 112 to number 12 out of 181 countries ranked by the World Bank in its annual Ease of Doing Business survey, all in the span of four years. The transformation was called "unprecedented" by World Bank economist Simeon Djankov. Georgia is now ranked as having a more attractive regulatory climate than France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Other results of this transformation include more efficient clinics, gas pipelines to heat remote towns, and a range of improvements to make administration offices more responsive to citizens. In Zugdidi, in western Georgia, local officials and a construction company were finally able to build a children's playground after regulations and paperwork were simplified.
Both Poland and Hungary have inspired the victorious package of business, legal, and institutional reforms implemented in Georgia. While Hungary moved forward gradually to a more market-oriented system, known as "goulash communism," Poland took a dose of "shock therapy"-unleashing market factors soon after the first opposition administration in the Eastern bloc took over in August 1989. The Balcerowicz Plan, named for Poland's visionary finance minister, eliminated price controls, eliminated preferential credits for state-owned enterprises, and allowed enterprises to declare bankruptcy, among other measures.
"Nineteen eighty-nine marked the very beginning of new era. It was completely unexpected, and there was no road map for transition. In the midst of all the hope and confusion, USAID had to rethink every approach. That investment is still paying off in the work we do today," said Paige Alexander, assistant administrator for USAID's Bureau for Europe and Eurasia.
Poland and the other former planned economic climates, emerging from economic stagnation in the 1980s, needed market-based structures, institutions, legal guidelines, and private-sector businesses. The United States contributed to the process through the 1989 SEED (Encouragement For East European Democracy) Act passed by the U.S. Congress with bipartisan encouragement. The law provided for critical assistance to advertise democracy and economic reforms throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
"From late November-when the SEED Act was passed-through Christmas we were working night and day," said Donald Pressley, former USAID mission director in Poland. "We had six weeks left in 1989 to develop a plan."
By December, Poland was suffering from hyperinflation, a currency that could not be converted, and an inefficient economy with subsidies amounting to 15 percent of the gross national product. All governmental services were centralized, but the system had broken down and social benefits were deteriorating; the regulatory framework and financial infrastructure were also weak. The economic climate struggled due to a lack of trained business people with acceptable access to credit as well as an industrial sector incapable of adapting to the new conditions of a market economy.
To help Poland achieve the double transition from a centrally planned economy to a private-sector led competitive economy, and from a society ruled by a single-party political structure to a vibrant participatory democracy, USAID worked in cooperation with the Polish Government. The Agency provided technical advice and other encouragement as Poland's leadership privatized state-owned enterprises, and improved the regulatory and institutional environment in which businesses and civil society function.
Over the next years, USAID supported Poland's ambitious endeavours to restructure public debt, private banks, and set the flailing economy on a more powerful macro-economic footing. Poland worked with USAID, other U.S. Government agencies, and other development partners to pull itself out of economic recession and fundamentally transform its society and economy.
During that time, USAID also worked directly with the Polish private sector to invigorate the economy. Private businesses needed financing to grow and adjust to the new market realities, and USAID/Poland responded to this need by creating a fund to provide loans to viable businesses. The Polish-American Enterprise Fund, established in 1989, was a private venture, started with sufficient capital to cover operating costs, but structured to earn enough income to become self-maintaining.
For businesses with little experience in a market economy, USAID helped business people develop business skills-marketing, management, finance, and a host of other fundamental abilities. Says Eric Postel, assistant administrator for USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade: "When Poland began down the reform route in 1989, there was no clear path to move from a command economy to a market system. Thanks to the considerate and victorious endeavours of our Polish counterparts, our own staff, and our donor partners, combined with a willingness to rethink and rework approaches, the path for future reformers has become clearer. Our work made a impact for Poland, and the lessons learned continue to provide a foundation for improved assistance."
And what a difference-Poland is now a member of the European Union. "One of the major lessons from our work in Eastern Europe was the importance of the laws, regulations, and institutions that underpin a well-functioning market economy," notes Nick Klissas, USAID senior private law adviser.
Poland provided as the starting point for USAID's well-established Private Legal and Institutional Reform (CLIR) programs and tools. Discouraged with slow progress in the early years of reform, the Agency developed analytical tools for identifying constraints to growth in the private sector, moving beyond laws-which often were passed but not implemented-to the government and private sector institutions crucial to success.
Establishing on the first CLIR analysis conducted in Poland in 1998, USAID has now developed a series of policy environment diagnostics, including a gender-sensitive agricultural policy tool used in the Feed the Future initiative, the Obama administration's global food security effort, led by USAID. Tools born in Poland have since been adapted and used on every continent.
"USAID's ability to learn from the past has paid off," says Jock Conly, operating mission manager for Georgia. "What took 10 years in Poland took only four in Georgia."
USAID/Georgia is currently applying the Economic Prosperity Initiative, a project that focuses on accelerating growth in the private sector to help create a brighter economic future for all Georgians. And lessons of Georgia-flexibility in design, direct encouragement to country-owned initiatives, and increased private-sector participation in policy-will inspire the next generation of reforms.
"USAID's ability to learn from the past has paid off," says Jock Conly, operating mission manager for Georgia. "What took 10 years in Poland took only four in Georgia."
USAID/Georgia is currently applying the Economic Prosperity Initiative, a project that focuses on accelerating growth in the private sector to help create a brighter economic future for all Georgians. And lessons of Georgia-flexibility in design, direct encouragement to country-owned initiatives, and increased private-sector participation in policy-will inspire the next generation of reforms.
When Tariel Chanturia, one of Georgia's most renowned poets, wanted to publish his poetry, he found out that he had to register as an individual small business owner first. Instead of the horror adventure he expected, he was helped in no time-and with no bribe-thanks to the streamlined tax registration process. It was "a fairy tale" according to Chanturia. "A couple of years ago it would have taken all my lifetime, nerves, and half of my honoraria."
