Economic Press Monitor October 1 - 7, 2017	Days:  23 30 07 14 21

economic & politics

LIBERALI: “THE CITY HALL GAVE CONSENT TO HAND OVER LAND PLOTS TO THE COMPANY, CONNECTED WITH IVANISHVILI”

October 6, 2017 - City Hall of Tbilisi decided to hand over for 1 lari the land plot of 1,900 square m, located nearby to Pushkin Square in the very center of Tbilisi, to LLC Tbilisi City, connected with billionaire ex-premier Bidzina Ivanishvili, Liberali reports.

According to the agreement, the company should arrange underground parking on this territory and invest for that end at least 1 million lari within 12 months after receiving of corresponding permission.




NETGAZETI.GE: ““GEORGIAN DREAM” RECEIVED IN SEPTEMBER DONATIONS OF OVER 4M LARI”

October 6, 2017 - Referring to State Audit Service, Netgazeti.Ge reports that in September, donations to political parties and independent candidates has totaled to 4.56 million lari. At that, over 4 million lari was share of ruling Georgian Dream.




EUGEORGIA.INFO: “WHETHER GEORGIA FULFILLS OBLIGATIONS IN SPHERE OF STATE PROCUREMENTS, ASSUMED BY ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT”

October 5, 2017 - If Georgia will manage to accomplish by 2022 the program of rapprochement of legislation on state procurements with the European norms (assumed within Association Agreement with the EU), the Georgian companies will be allowed to participate in state procurements of the EU, Eugeorgia.Info reports.

The first phase of obligations’ fulfillment by Georgia, which envisages development of core regulating standards in the procurements sphere, has finished in September.




NETGAZETI.GE: “WHAT IS CORRELATION BETWEEN EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT – RESEARCH”

October 4, 2017 - Center of Social Sciences, with financing of Open Society – Georgia Foundation, prepared in 2016 a research, which concerns correlation between education and employment, Netgazeti.Ge reports.

According to the research, only 33% of respondents (including self-occupied) have paid work, while 67% are not occupied, from where economic active job-seekers make up 37.5%.




FORBES GEORGIA: “PPP PROJECTS TO BE REGULATED BY NEW BODY”

October 4, 2017 - Within obligations, assumed under new program of IMF, Georgian government drafted the bill “On Public-Private Partnership”, the magazine reports.

According to the document, the body has been created, which will take part in development of projects of public-private partnership (PPP).




TABULA: “IN 2018, DEFENSE MINISTRY WILL BE FUNDED LEAST OF ALL FOR THE LAST 14 YEARS, 5.6% OF THE BUDGET”

October 4, 2017 - According to primary draft of the budget-2018, defense sphere of Georgia will receive 702 million lari that is by 46 million less in comparison with 2016.

Defense expenditure in 2018 makes up only 5.6% of the budget, Tabula specifies and notes that it is the least indicator of defense expenditure’s ratio to total budget for the last 14 years.




NETGAZETI.GE: “ACCORDING TO UNCONFIRMED REPORTS, POST OF DEPUTY HEAD OF AUDIT SERVICE IS KEPT ONLY BY NODAR JAVAKHISHVILI”

October 2, 2017 - As it became known, new Auditor General Irakli Mekvabishvili does not wish to continue cooperation with Nino Lomjaria and Devi Vepkhvadze (who held posts of deputies), Netgazeti.Ge reports.

Referring to unconfirmed information, the article notes that post of deputy head is kept only by Nodar Javakhishvili (head of National Bank of Georgia under presidentship of Shevardnadze and minister of regional development and infrastructure under ruling of Georgian Dream).

macroeconomics & budget

TABULA: “IN 2018, HEALTHCARE MINISTRY’S BUDGET TO EXCEED GEORGIA’S BUDGET OF 2005”

October 6, 2017 - According to primary draft budget-2018, the budget of Ministry of Labor, Healthcare and Social Protection will amount to 3.5 billion lari. That is the record sum, which any ministry ever spent during a year, Tabula notes.




TABULA: “ECONOMY MINISTER: MY POSITION WILL BE THAT WE WILL NOT FINANCE “GEM FEST” ANY MORE”

October 6, 2017 - Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Gakharia declares that Georgian electronic music festival GEM Fest should not be financed any more.

As the Minister specifies, this year “there were shortcomings of management, when we appeared in such situation that additional expenses are necessary”.




TABULA: “IN 2018, THE GOVERNMENT PLANS DEFICIT OF 3.3% – WHETHER REQUIREMENT OF THE FREEDOM ACT IS VIOLATED”

October 5, 2017 - According to primary draft budget-2018, the government plans for next year the budget deficit of 3.3%. That exceeds limit of 3%, established to the government by Economic Freedom Act, however, despite it, the government does not violate requirement of this law, Tabula says.




TABULA: “DRAFT BUDGET: NEW REGULATION OF GAMBLING TO BE DEVELOPED”

October 5, 2017 - The draft budget-2018 is already submitted to the Parliament, according to which the government plans adoption of new regulation for gambling business, Tabula reports.

“The state control of execution of regulation will be toughened.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “CHALLENGES OF PENSION REFORM – POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDES”

October 3, 2017 - Launch of pension reform is announced now in the 3^rd quarter of 2018. Currently, it is known that Georgia will have mixed pension reform, when employer, employee and the state will make simultaneous equal contributions (per 2% each).




REZONANSI: “PROSPECTS OF LARI STRENGTHENING IS VANISHED FOR 2018 TOO”

October 3, 2017 - Draft budget-2018 is calculated in assumption of the rate of 2.5 GEL/USD. As the newspaper notes, that means that lari has no prospects of strengthening in next year too.




TABULA: “IN 2018, THE GOVERNMENT REDUCES PRIVATIZATION BY 33%”

October 2, 2017 - According to the draft budget-2018, the government plans to receive from privatization (reduction of non-financial assets) 60 million lari in next year that is by 33% less in comparison with 2017, Tabula reports.

The article notes that volume of privatization, planned for 2018, is the lowest for the last 10 years.

conflict and court

REZONANSI: “HOW VICTIMS OF “CENTER POINT” WILL BE SATISFIED”

October 2, 2017 - Mari Tsutskiridze, lawyer of founders of the developer company Center Point, declares that property of Center Point will be handed over to construction company m², supposedly, in the first half of October. The new owner assumes satisfaction of all damaged clients of Center Point, she claims.

companies

TABULA: “KVIRIKASHVILI: IVANISHVILI BUILDS THE PARKING ON ABSOLUTELY NONCOMMERCIAL BASES”

October 3, 2017 - Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili declares that territory near Pushkin Square in Tbilisi is necessary for arrangement of underground parking. Bidzina Ivanishvili (billionaire ex-prime minister) “absolutely on noncommercial bases builds twice a bigger parking, than it is required for the hotel, which is under construction there”, he explains.




FORBES GEORGIA: ““S&P” DECREASED RATING TO “GEORGIAN RAILWAY””

October 2, 2017 - Standard&Poor’s decreased rating to Georgian Railway, the magazine reports. The credit rating in foreign currency remained as “B+”, but outlook was changed to “negative” from “stable”.




TABULA: “SAKREBULO SUPPORTED OFFER OF IVANISHVILI’S COMPANY”

October 2, 2017 - Despite protest of opposition and civil society, Tbilisi Sakrebulo (City Council) has supported alteration of zonal status of site of 1,900 square m near Pushkin Square, Tabula reports.

As the article notes, change of the status of the site and its handing over for symbolic price of 1 lari was demanded by Old City Development, the company founded by Bidzina Ivanishvili (billionaire ex-premier of Georgia).

transport & communications

REZONANSI: “TECHNICAL EXAMINATION TO INCREASE PRICE OF TIRES, CAR PARTS AND SERVICE”

October 5, 2017 - Obligatory examination of cars will lead to increase of price on spare parts and tires, as well as cost of technician service, the newspaper says.

At that, price growth is inevitable because of devaluation of lari and tendencies on currency market, the article states.




LIBERALI: “THE CITY, GOT STUCK IN TRAFFIC JAMS”

October 4, 2017 - For residents of Tbilisi and other cities of Georgia, one of the hottest topics became traffic jams, the magazine says.

Block of one direction of traffic and change of transport flow from one direction to another does not solve the problem of traffic jams, especially in the city, where number of private cars per capita exceeds rate of any European city, the magazine is specified in article.




EUGEORGIA.INFO: “CONSTRUCTION OF ANAKLIA PORT TO START IN Q1 2018”

October 3, 2017 - Giorgi Chugoshvili, finance director of Anaklia City, declares that construction of the deep-water port in Anaklia will begin in the 1^st quarter of next year. So far, considerable environmental protection researches are conducted, also designing of the port is completed, he specifies.

international cooperation

NETGAZETI.GE: “POLITICAL EFFECT OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH CHINA ON GEORGIA’S SECURITY”

October 6, 2017 - Joseph Larsen, analyst at Georgian Institute of Policy, declares that deepening of economic relations with China could benefit to strengthening of Georgia’s security.

Larsen specifies that at this stage, interests of China in Georgia are fixed in economic sphere only, however, in his opinion, deep economic relations are followed by geopolitical results also.




FORBES GEORGIA: “PROSPECT OF BRITISH INVESTMENTS IN GEORGIA”

October 5, 2017 - The magazine publishes interview with member of the British Parliament Mark Pritchard, who was appointed as special representative in trade issues for Georgia and Armenia.

“Business environment in Georgia improves, economy grows, however growth has to be more and I think that the government of Georgia notices it too”, Pritchard declares.

tourism

FORBES GEORGIA: “IN INDEX OF COMPETITIVENESS OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM, GEORGIA IS ON THE 70^TH PLACE”

October 5, 2017 - The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017, released by the World Economic Forum, places Georgia with 3.7 points on the 70^th place among 136 countries, the magazine reports.

In 2015 (the Report is published once in 2 years), Georgia with 3.68 points occupied the 71^st place.