Georgian National Business Award “Mercury 2011” - Award Ceremony

May 11, 2011

Tbilisi, Georgia

Gala Dinner

On May 11, 2011, the first national business award “Mercury 2011” award ceremony was held. The Gala-evening of the National Business Award was held at the House of New Technologies and it was attended by the representatives of public and government sectors, nominees of the awards and other public figures.

“Business of the Year” nomination was awarded to “Silknet” by the President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili. Moreover, the President gave a speech to the audience where he spoke about economic achievements and future goals.

“Mercury 2011” is the collaborative project of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and National Investment Agency of Georgia. 15 winners were revealed at the awards in overall; representatives of large, medium and small businesses were among the nominees.

Several expert groups worked in order to reveal the best – the jury consisted of about 200 experts. 45 nominees were short-listed at the last stage of the business awards but the winners were first revealed at the Gala evening. It is remarkable that the society could also vote for their favorites in the nominations of “Entrepreneur of the Year” and the “Preferred Employer of the Year” with the help of the web-page and newspapers.

The winners of “Mercury 2011” are:

• Internally Displaced Person of the year – Guram Kapanadze, “IveriaPharma”
• Ecologically clean product – “Kula”
• Made in Georgia – “BTM Textile”
• “Foreign Star” – “IDS Borjomi”
• Green Business of the year - “Wood Service”
• Agro Business of the year – “Marneuli Food Factory”
• Tourist Business of the year – “Kvareli Lake” project
• Small Business of the year – “Churia”
• Growth of the Sector – “Punico”
• Discovery of the year – “Barambo”
• Young Entrepreneur – Mikheil Farulava (LLC “Georgian Bakers”)
• Female Entrepreneur – Nino Zambakhidze (“Georgian Business Zone”)
• Business of the year – Silknet
• Entrepreneur of the year – Soso Pkhakadze (“Wissol Petroleum Georgia”)
• Employer of the year – Soso Pkhakadze (“Wissol Petroleum Georgia”)

Moreover, the organizer of the event HSBC Bank gave a special award to “GMP” for its export activities.