Economic Press Monitor September 20 - 26, 2020	Days:  12 19 26 03 10

economic & politics

FORBES GEORGIA: “BRITAIN KEEPS A CLOSE WATCH ON WHAT RESULTS OF TOUGHENED REGULATIONS IN GEORGIAN COMMUNICATION SECTOR WILL BE”

September 25, 2020 - “By means of the UK embassy in Tbilisi, we keep a close watch on results of regulations in the sphere of electronic communications, being toughened by Georgian Parliament”, Minister for European Neighborhood and the Americas at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK Wendy Morton declared. She replied to enquiry regarding recent developments in Georgia, made by MP Alyn Smith, the magazine reports.




FORBES GEORGIA: “CONGRESSMAN: GEORGIAN GOVERNMENT OPPOSES IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW DIGITAL CORRIDOR PROJECT”

September 25, 2020 - Member of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Ken Buck (R-CO) considers that steps, taken by Georgian government, hamper the project of “Digital Silk Way”. He expresses “concern regarding the ongoing deterioration of good governance” in Georgia.




TABULA: “DEGNAN: IT WILL BE SAD IF WE LEARN ABOUT PRESSURE OR BRIBERY OF VOTERS”

September 24, 2020 - The US ambassador in Georgia Kelly Degnan considers that “It is normal that situation becomes more aggravated with approach of the voting day” (the matter concerns Georgian parliamentary elections on October 31).

However, “It will be sad if we learn about cases of pressure, corrupt use of administrative resources or bribery of voters”, the ambassador says.




REZONANSI: “WHY THE BANKER WANTS TO FORBID USURY AND HOW THIS IDEA WILL CHANGE RATING OF HIS PARTY”

September 23, 2020 - Leader of opposition political movement Lelo for Georgia Mamuka Khazaradze (founder of Georgia’s largest TBC Bank) declared that he is going to re-structure Georgia’s banking and financial sector. At that, he put forward an initiative to make usury in the country punishable under the law, the newspaper reports.




TABULA: ““IPSOS”: 64% OF RESPONDENTS SAY THAT THE MAIN ISSUE, WHICH AUTHORITY HAS TO SETTLE, IS EMPLOYMENT”

September 21, 2020 - Survey, conducted by French research center Ipsos, show that 64% of Georgians consider the most important issue, which authority of the country has to settle, is employment. Besides, 50% named economy, while 47.5% – poverty.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “GAKHARIA – OUR SYSTEM INFRASTRUCTURE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REACH THE EUROPEAN LEVEL EVEN IN 4 YEARS”

September 21, 2020 - “In spite of investment of 20 billion lari in system infrastructure within the next 4 years, our system infrastructure will not be able to reach the European level even in 4 years”, Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia declared.

The Premier said this in Tkibuli (Imereti region), while presenting Bezhan Tsakadze as ruling party candidate for MP from election district of Zestaponi, Baghdati, Terjola and Tkibuli, the newspaper reports.




TABULA: ““IPSOS”: IF ELECTIONS WERE NEXT WEEK – “DREAM” – 25%, “UNM” – 15.5%, “EUROPEANS” – 5%”

September 21, 2020 - Survey, conducted by French research center Ipsos, show that if parliamentary elections in Georgia were held next week, 25% of respondents would vote for ruling Georgian Dream. Major oppositional party United National Movement (UNM) was named by 15.5%, while its former part, European Georgia – by 5%.

macroeconomics & budget

TABULA: “NATIONAL BANK’S DEPARTMENT HEAD: SUCH DEPRECIATION WILL BE FOLLOWED BY FAST STRENGTHENING”

September 25, 2020 - Archil Imnaishvili, head of macroeconomic and statistics department at National Bank of Georgia (NBG), stated that “When such depreciation [of lari] is not caused by fundamental factors and is conditioned by expectations, as a rule, such depreciation is quickly followed by strengthening”. He indicated that lari was considerably depreciated in this May and then was also quickly became stronger.




REZONANSI: “THE GOVERNMENT AND NATIONAL BANK SURRENDERED – LARI WILL NOT STABILIZED ANY MORE”

September 24, 2020 - “After overcoming the uncertainty, related to [COVID-19] pandemic and pass of traditional pre-election agiotage, the rate will return to its balance mark”, president of National Bank of Georgia (NBG) Koba Gvenetadze assures. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Georgian economy is reflected mainly in almost zeroing of income from tourism, he notes.




TABULA: “IN SEPTEMBER ONLY, LARI DEPRECIATED AGAINST DOLLAR BY 18 TETRI, WHILE AGAINST EURO – BY 16 TETRI”

September 24, 2020 - In September, Georgian national currency lari depreciated against the US dollar by 18 tetri, while against euro – by 16 tetri, Tabula reports. The article notes that during this period, National Bank of Georgia (NBG) sold over $150 million for strengthening of lari.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “MANIPULATION WITH FIGURES BY FORMER PRESIDENT OF NATIONAL BANK”

September 23, 2020 - Giorgi Kadagidze, ex-president of National Bank of Georgia, posted GDP data in social network. In his turn, banking expert Giorgi Tsutskiridze claims that Kadagidze’s methodology of GDP calculation in dollars contains a number of inaccuracies and is based on manipulation with figures, the newspaper says.

conflict and court

FORBES GEORGIA: ““NEQSOL” SPEAKS ABOUT NEW DETAILS OF RELATIONS WITH NATIONAL COMMUNICATION COMMISSION”

September 22, 2020 - Temur Tagiyev, head of strategic development at Azerbaijani NEQSOL Holding, speaks in an interview to the magazine about new details of recent relations with Georgian National Communication Commission on the issue of Caucasus Online.

In 2019, Azerbaijani NEQSOL acquired for $61 million stake of 49% in Georgian telecom operator Caucasus Online, however the Commission demanded to cancel the transaction (claiming lack of prior notice), setting final term for that end at September 20.




FORBES GEORGIA: “REVAZ KOPALADZE: SUCH PRESSURE FROM THE STATE FRIGHTENS OUR BUSINESS PARTNERS”

September 22, 2020 - In 2019, Azerbaijani NEQSOL Holding acquired for $61 million stake of 49% in Georgian telecom operator Caucasus Online. However, Georgian National Communication Commission demanded to cancel the transaction (claiming lack of prior notice).

companies

TABULA: “WITH ASSISTANCE OF “SAKARTVELOS BANKI”, FOOTBALL STADIUM OF CATEGORY IV OF UEFA WILL BE OPENED IN BATUMI”

September 25, 2020 - In partnership with Sakartvelos Banki (Bank of Georgia), football stadium of category IV of UEFA, calculated on 20,000 funs, will be opened in Batumi. Cost of the project exceeds 100 million lari.

transport & communications

REZONANSI: “FOR THE FIRST TIME, GEORGIAN LOW-COST AIRLINE WILL APPEAR ON AVIATION MARKET”

September 23, 2020 - Giorgi Kodua, founder of Georgian transport think-tank HUB Georgia, declared that negotiations are underway about creation of Georgian low-cost airline. “Consent from investors exists, while negotiations with the airport and the state continue so far”, he noted.




TABULA: ““TAV GEORGIA”: PASSENGER TRAFFIC AT AIRPORTS RETURNED TO INDICATOR OF 15 YEARS BACK”

September 22, 2020 - Thea Zakaradze, deputy director general of TAV Georgia (operator of Tbilisi and Batumi airports), says that “when TAV made investments in Georgia in 2005, we finished the year with 545,000 passengers and now, in September 2020, because of that very COVID-19, we returned to figures of 15 years back”.

Zakaradze specifies that last year, Tbilisi and Batumi airports served on average 100-125 flights a day, while now – only 8-10.

ecology & health

REZONANSI: “TO WHAT STAGE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WILL SUSTAIN 200 NEW DAILY CASES – APPROXIMATE CALCULATION OF APPROXIMATE CRISIS PERIOD”

September 23, 2020 - There is already two weeks that daily rate of new COVID-19 cases makes up about 200, the newspaper says.

As infectiologist Alexander Goginava indicates, Georgian healthcare system at this stage is able to secure treatment of about 2,000-3,000 patients.

finances & banking

TABULA: “TRANSFERRED $18M AND RECEIVED $9M – GEORGIAN BANKS IN FILES OF FINCEN”

September 22, 2020 - Georgian banks appeared in files of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) of the US Department of the Treasury, which concern money laundering and fraudulent schemes, Tabula reports.

According to the article, the files were obtained by BuzzFeed, which passed them to ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists).

agriculture & food

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “THE GOVERNMENT FOUNDED “HARVEST MANAGEMENT COMPANY” AND BUYS GRAPE OF 15M LARI”

September 24, 2020 - Within the program on winegrowers’ subsidizing, Georgian Agency of State Procurements considers 2 offers now. These are applications on purchase of grape, submitted by LLC Akura for 35 million lari and by LLC Harvest Management Company for 15 million lari, bm.ge reports.

construction

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: ““TBC CAPITAL” – IN 8 MONTHS OF 2020, APARTMENTS WITH AREA OF HALF A MILLION SQUARE METERS WERE SOLD”

September 21, 2020 - TBC Capital estimates that Georgian economy will return to indicator of pre-COVID-19 crisis in 2021.

Referring to research, TBC Capital points that “recovery of the sector of tourism in Georgia will begin in the second half of next year”.