Hualing Free Industrial Zone - Best Place in Georgia for Industrial & Trading Business.

As one of the successfully emerging free industrial zones in Georgia, Hualing FIZ is bringing an absolutely different approach to enterprises. After 4 years of its establishment, Hualing Free Industrial Zone became a special place for investors from different countries.

“For 4 years, Hualing FIZ has been successfully operating in the Imereti region, in the city of Kutaisi. How would you summarize these past 4 years?”

Hualing FIZ is part of the Hualing Group. Hualing Group is one of the largest companies which has a long history in China as well as in Georgia. Since 2007, Hualing Group has carried out a number of the most significant projects in Georgia, including Hualing Tbilisi Sea New City,  5* Hotel “Hotels & Preference Hualing Tbilisi”, Basis Bank, Hualing Tbilisi Sea Plaza, etc. Total investment already amounts 600 million dollars.

Our innovative approach to business, understanding and matching the needs of investors and entrepreneurs in a rapidly changing environment, became a key competitive advantage of Hualing Free Industrial Zone. This understanding starts with one simple guiding principle : Our job is to create values that make a better future for our customers. This means maximizing our resources to serve them in the most productive, efficient way. This is the belief that drives every major decision we make at Hualing FIZ.

Our strong results during the last several years were driven by many factors but at the heart of our success was our focus to be flexible in meeting the demands of particular investors on various conditions.

Let us discuss the formula for success that distinguishes Hualing FIZ and gives it competitive advantages .

When we are talking about the international investors who need to take a very important decision to (re)establish the business presence and are in the process of choosing countries to start or transfer their production, they conduct multi-profile careful consideration of options and the list of factors for decision-making is also quite pervasive. Various aspects from operational conditions  to political-economic stability may play a crucial role in this process. Therefore, on a micro level, we decided to create a place that would make business processes easy for manufacturers and offer all integrated services matching their needs.

Hualing FIZ is developed on a 36-hectare territory. Companies enjoy the tax-free environment – there is full exemption from all corporate taxes on corporate profit, property, dividend, import/export and VAT. Customs zone available at the entrance of the Free Zone provides very timely and effective services during imports and exports of goods. One of the key elements is its location - virtually in the heart of the country, 220 km from Tbilisi, 95 km from the port city of Poti and just 19 km away from strongly emerging Kutaisi International Airport, which is gradually covering the whole Eurasian continent, grants Hualing FIZ strategic position to serve as an industrial, logistical and trade center between Europe and Asia.

We have our  own facilities, ready-made buildings of various sizes and shapes, with solutions like integrated offices, installed cranes, ramps, as well as land areas - all at very competitive rental rates. Our focus is to be flexible in meeting the demands of particular investors on various conditions, on time-frames and offer flexible approaches on rental terms. We also express readiness to build turn-key facility solutions for our long-term partners if existing opportunities do not match their needs.  In a nutshell, our aim is to support start-ups, help industries and traders commence their businesses with very limited capital expenditures and within optimized time-frames. This way we enable a win-win formula in the long run for all the involved stakeholders, such as businesses, people, and our country.

Which project would you distinguish and what plans does the Hualing FIZ have for the nearest future, as we see, the past 4 years were quite successful for the company.

Yes, we experienced solid growth, however we are still fresh with long term plans. By 2020 the various industrial project investments in Hualing FIZ has exceeded 70 million USD. We currently totally have around 120 companies operating successfully, including international and regional trade companies, factories and business outsourcing companies. There are 13 factories presented in the FIZ functional and/or in installation mode, covering the following industries: full processing line of wood, manufacturing of high-end HoReCa related furniture, stone, building materials, ferro alloys, pharmaceuticals, solar panel modules, ethanol, textile, plastics, end-user product trade, etc.

Interest is growing sustainably from various industries across Europe and Asia. In 2020, 2 plastic processing plants with the newest technology will be opened,In addition to existing furniture manufacturing portfolio, Canadian project of household furniture manufacturing will be added this year with the investment of 6 000 000  USD.

One of the outstanding projects inside Hualing Free Zone is the production of solar panels. AE - Solar - German company and the leading brand in the renewable energy industry, has been operating in Hualing FIZ since 2019 and Currently, its total capacity exceeds 1 GW/year. Nowadays 150 local highly qualified professionals are employed in the company. The produced solar panels are delivered to 70 countries from Georgia.

 Many interesting projects in terms of employment were mentioned and what benefits do these projects have for the region and if there are the fields you are planning to develop in the nearest future?

Local population employment is very important for us. In fact creation of more economic affluence in the region is one of our key missions. At present, Hualing Free Zone has created up to 1,000 jobs and we are  proud to have the opportunity to do more for the benefit of the Imereti region.

As for the future projects, Hualing FIZ became an honorary member of the World Free Zones Organization, at the same time we are planning to carry out the projects to support various  Start-up SMEs. Hualing FIZ is always ready to support innovative projects so we think that our Free Zone soon will be joined by companies of completely different fields.

I'm confident that we will continue  to build upon our strong foundation since we are  committed to continued improvement and innovation.