Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze has left for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a three-day working visit, his press office reported.

He will hold talks with executives from the Saqr Port in Ras Al Khaimah and Dubai World, as well as officials from the Jafza free economic zone in Dubai. The PM is also due to meet Omar Bin Sulaiman, the head of the Dubai International Financial Centre.

The Georgian parliament began on February 12 consideration of a government-proposed comprehensive economic package, which, among other things, envisages the establishment of a financial center and free economic zone in Georgia.

A consortium of UAE’s Dubai Ports and  Jafza free economic zone in Dubai is vying with two other companies to lease Poti Port and 400 hectares of adjacent land for 49 years so as to create a free economic zone. The two other companies are Germany’s Hamburger Hafen und Logistik and the UK-based Hutchison Westports, which is part of the Hutchison Port Holdings Group.