Georgian officials inaugurated a technology hub in the former parliament building in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi, repurposing the contemporary oval-shaped glass-and-steel and concrete structure that had remained largely unused after the legislature moved back to Tbilisi in 2019.
The launching ceremony late on July 24 featured a drone show and was attended by government officials, lawmakers, local authorities, members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of the Georgian Patriarchate.
“Today we are opening the Kutaisi Technology Hub, which, I am confident, will become a regional center of knowledge, innovation, and technological development,” Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said at the opening ceremony. “I am pleased that the building, which was a symbol of corruption under the previous government, will acquire an entirely new purpose starting today.”
The hub, operated by the Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), a public body, will house Georgia’s “largest technology park,” an interactive science and technology museum, the international TUMO technology school, an artificial intelligence computing center, startup spaces, and contemporary laboratories dedicated to robotics, electronics, drones, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other fields, Kobakhidze noted.
“Kutaisi International University will become an integral part of this ecosystem,” the GD PM noted, referring to the local higher education institution established by Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili. He also emphasized the importance of transportation links, saying Kutaisi International Airport would help position the hub as a technology center of regional significance.
Kobakhidze also listed the government’s efforts to strengthen Georgia’s innovation ecosystem, including support for startups, technology parks, tax incentives, foreign investment, and workforce development. He noted that, with government support, more than 300 high-tech startups have generated over GEL 800 million (USD 305 mln) in economic value, created more than 4,000 jobs, and helped strengthen Georgia’s position as “one of the attractive [technology] centers in the region.”
The parliament building in Kutaisi, the central city of the Imereti region, was built as part of the stated efforts by the United National Movement (UNM) government (2004–2012) to promote geographical deconcentration. The legislature moved to Kutaisi in 2012, but after the change of government, the ruling Georgian Dream party members argued that the relocation was both inconvenient and costly. It gradually moved parliamentary operations back to Tbilisi, completing the process by 2019.
Both the parliament’s relocation to Kutaisi in 2012 and then back to the capital by 2019 required constitutional amendments.
After losing its legislative function, the building joined the list of UNM-era modernist architectural projects that struggled to find new purposes under Georgian Dream rule. The opening of the technology hub follows decisions concerning other such buildings, including recent reports that the Georgian Foreign Ministry had relocated to the former Presidential Palace in Tbilisi’s Avlabari district, and Tbilisi City Hall’s recent approval of the demolition of the “Rike Tubes” — another modernist landmark in Tbilisi’s Old Town, which was designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas in 2010 to serve as exhibition and concert halls, but never became operational.
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