Economic Press Monitor January 27 - February 2, 2019	Days:  19 26 02 09 16

economic & politics

NETGAZETI.GE: “ACCORDING TO GIORGI KADAGIDZE, ILIAUNI DISMISSED HIM FROM POST OF THE BUSINESS SCHOOL’S DEAN”

February 1, 2019 - Giorgi Kadagidze (ex-president of National Bank of Georgia) was dismissed from post of dean of Business School at Ilia State University (IliaUni), Netgazeti.Ge reports.

As Kadagidze posted in social networks, “exactly a year ago, I decided to devote the big part of my time to the sector of education, in particular, to reforming of Ilia Business School”.




REZONANSI: “SINCE MARCH, SHOP SHELVES WILL BECOME EMPTY AND PRODUCTION RISE IN PRICE WILL BEGIN?”

January 31, 2019 - Referring to information of Georgian Association of Distributors, the newspaper states that since March 1, shop shelves, perhaps, will become empty and price growth of production will begin.

The article names as a reason the technical regulations “On Provision of Information on Food to Consumer”, which enters in force on the mentioned date.




FORBES GEORGIA: “WHAT MARIJUANA ECONOMY WILL BRING TO GEORGIA?”

January 29, 2019 - Referring to research, conducted by Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, the magazine says that for Georgian economy, production of marijuana will have positive, though insignificant impact, as raises risk of emergence of illegal market.

As the main problem, the research named export markets, which are quite limited.




NETGAZETI.GE: “CORRUPTION OF HIGH LEVEL AND SWAYING OF DEMOCRACY – GEORGIA IN THE CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX”

January 29, 2019 - According to the Corruption Perception Index, published by Transparency International (TI), Georgia with 58 points occupies the 41^st place among 180 countries, Netgazeti.Ge reports.

In spite of improvement by 2 points of Georgia’s score since 2017, TI considers that “the country now faces democratic backsliding”.




TABULA: “SAAKASHVILI: TODAY, COUNTER IS OPENED IN COURT AND TRADE IS UNDERWAY”

January 28, 2019 - “Today, there is counter opened in court and trade is underway”, Georgian ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili declared on air of Rustavi-2 TV company.

Saakashvili admitted that in the 1990-ies, he tried to reform judicial system, but that failed then, while after the Rose Revolution (2003) “we failed to do that even more”, though “at least, there was no corruption”.

macroeconomics & budget

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “GIORGI TSUTSKIRIDZE: “FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS PROVIDE NOT THE INSTANT GROWTH, BUT STABILITY OF ECONOMIC GROWTH””

February 1, 2019 - Professor Giorgi Tsutskiridze points that foreign direct investments (FDI) “promote not the instant growth, but provide stability of economic growth”.

If in 2014, ratio of FDI to GDP in Georgia made up 6.4%, then in 2017 – 12%, which was quite high rate – the 12^th position in the international rating, Tsutskiridze specifies.




TABULA: “THE COMPANY, FROM WHICH THE GOVERNMENT HAD TO BUY HONEY, WAS REMOVED FROM THE TENDER”

January 31, 2019 - Georgian Agency of State Procurements declared that the company, which had to supply honey to governmental agencies, is removed from the tender. Statement of the Agency indicates that the samples, presented by the company, did not meet requirements.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “NIKOLOZ GAGUA: PRIVATE ACCUMULATIVE PENSION SYSTEM, WHICH WE SUPPORT, HAS NO UNSUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES”

January 30, 2019 - Georgia’s Deputy Finance Minister Nikoloz Gagua assures that “private accumulative pension system, which we support, has no unsuccessful examples”.

In the context of the reform, being underway in Georgia, it is incorrect to bring examples of Poland and Hungary, where other models of reform were chosen, Gagua explains.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “WE HAVE VERY CLEAR VISION, WHAT WE HAVE TO DO IN ORDER TO MOVE AHEAD IN CREDIT RATINGS”

January 30, 2019 - We have very clear vision, what we have to do in order to move ahead in 5-7 years in credit ratings, Georgia’s Finance Minister Ivane Machavariani declared, speaking at the “Georgia and the World in 2019” conference in Tbilisi.

“Our goal is to enter a top five in all important ratings”, Machavariani noted.




NETGAZETI.GE: “IN 18 DAYS, OVER 20M LARI ENTERED THE PENSION FUND – DIRECTOR OF THE AGENCY”

January 30, 2019 - Levan Surguladze, director of Georgian Pension Agency, declares that since launch of pension system this year, “over 20 million lari is already accumulated as pension savings”.

At that, from 25,000 companies, “not everybody closed declarations”, but only 7,500 and “we expect that this process will probably pass to February too”, Surguladze specifies.




TABULA: “THE GOVERNMENT PLANS TO BUY RUSSIAN HONEY WORTH 1,024,800 LARI”

January 30, 2019 - Following order of the Georgian government, State Procurement Agency announced the consolidated tender for honey procurement, Tabula reports. According to the article, it is planned to buy 73,200 kg of honey worth 1.02 million lari in 2019.

energy, oil & gas

NETGAZETI.GE: “SINCE MARCH 1, “SOCAR” RAISES GAS PRICE FOR COMMERCIAL CONSUMERS”

January 31, 2019 - Since March 1, Georgia’s regional gas distributor SOCAR Georgia Gas will increase gas price for commercial consumers, Netgazeti.Ge reports.

According to the recent statement of the company, 1 cubic m of gas will cost commercial consumers 95 tetri (VAT inclusive).

companies

FORBES GEORGIA: “WITH ASSISTANCE OF “SAKARTVELOS BANKI”, NEW DIGITAL PLATFORM ON REAL ESTATE TO BE CREATED”

February 1, 2019 - With financial support of Sakartvelos Banki (Bank of Georgia), the new online platform on real estate Area.Ge will be created, the magazine reports.

According to authors of the service, the platform will considerably simplify process of purchase and rent and will promote development of search engine.




FORBES GEORGIA: ““SHUCHMANN WINES” OPENS WINE VILLAGE”

January 28, 2019 - In April, the wine village will be opened on the territory of Shuchmann Wines Georgia in the village of Kisiskhevi (Kakheti region), the magazine reports.

According to the article, the first phase of the project envisages construction of 10 villas, while the second stage – more 14 villas by 2020.

transport & communications

TABULA: “BEKAURI: SALE OF “BEELINE” DOES NOT MEAN ITS DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE MARKET”

January 28, 2019 - Chairman of Georgian National Communication Commission Kakha Bekauri pointed that sale by the owner of mobile operator VEON (Beeline) “does not mean that it will not exist on the market”. “So, no disappearance of any third company from the market is planned”, he declared.

agriculture & food

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “IN 2018, GEORGIAN HAZELNUT EXPORT DECREASED BY 30.5%”

January 31, 2019 - In 2018, for the first time in the past few years, top ten of Georgia’s exporting production did not included hazelnut.

In 2018, hazelnut export amounted to $57.67 million, decreasing by 30.5%, if compared with 2017.




REZONANSI: “90% OF BAKERIES SHOULD BE CONSTANTLY FINED”

January 29, 2019 - In 2017-2018, Georgian National Food Agency conducted 781 inspections in bakeries. As the newspaper reports, because of revealed discrepancies, production was suspended in 72 entities in 2017, while in 2018 – in 41.

construction

FORBES GEORGIA: “WHERE AND HOW MUCH REAL ESTATE COSTS – THE MOST EXPENSIVE DISTRICTS OF TBILISI”

January 28, 2019 - In the 3^rd quarter of 2018, Georgian real estate market increased by 2.4% quarter-on-quarter and by 24.3% year-on-year, the magazine reports.

According to the joint research of TBC Bank, International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET) and ForSet, activity of Tbilisi real estate market still plays important role in the overall growth.

tourism

REZONANSI: “HOTELS ARE EMPTY, WINTER TOURISM COMPLETELY FAILED”

January 29, 2019 - Hotels, located in Georgia’s winter resorts, declare that nearly 25% of bookings are cancelled, the newspaper reports. As the reason, vacationers name spread of swine flu in Georgia.