At a meeting of the Health Care and Social Issues Committee, members considered Amendment No. 1 to the Framework Credit Facility Agreement of 15 November 2022 between the French Development Agency (AFD), as lender, and Georgia, as borrower. The amendment provides for a nine-month extension of the agreement’s validity period.

To finance the Human Capital Development Programme, the AFD allocated financial resources amounting to EUR 100 million to Georgia.

As explained by Deputy Finance Minister Ekaterine Guntsadze, the first tranche of EUR 50 million was disbursed in 2023, while the deadline for utilizing the remaining EUR 50 million expired on 15 November 2025. Consequently, the agreement is being amended to extend the deadline until 15 August 2026.

The Committee also discussed the Protocol on Amending the Agreement between the Government of Georgia and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on Free Trade, which was presented by Deputy Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Genadi Arveladze.

The Protocol was signed on 22 April 2026 and constitutes an update to the original agreement concluded on 13 May 2017. Its purpose is to further specify certain general provisions of the agreement and introduce new areas of cooperation.

According to the presenter, Georgia was the first country in the region to conclude a free trade agreement with China, providing Georgian producers and exporters with access to one of the world’s largest markets.

“The proposed amendments aim to align the existing agreement with modern economic realities, further specify current areas of cooperation, and introduce new fields of collaboration, thereby strengthening economic relations between the two countries”, - Genadi Arveladze stated.

The Committee approved the documents.