Economic Press Monitor May 24 - 30, 2020	Days:  16 23 30 06 13

economic & politics

FORBES GEORGIA: ““THIS PROBLEM HAS TO BE SETTLED” – TAD JONAS ABOUT VALUE OF JUDICIAL REFORM”

May 28, 2020 - Ted Jonas, senior counsel at Tbilisi office of international law firm Dentons and board member at Georgian communications operator SilkNet, considers that “judicial reform in Georgia was never carried out”.

“In reforming of court, Shevardnadze could not achieve success, then Saakashvili’s government eradicated corruption in court, but judicial remained under strict control of the state”, Jonas specifies.




FORBES GEORGIA: “WHAT POTENTIAL GEORGIA HAS IN RESPECT OF ATTRACTION OF BUSINESSES – ASSESSMENT OF FOUNDER OF “PAYSTARS””

May 27, 2020 - Andrew Thornhill, founder of Paystars, estimates that “Georgia possesses huge opportunities in IT sphere, as well as from the point of view of transit”.

“Georgia is located in wonderful geopolitical place”, there is “a lot of products, which transit is easily possible”, Thornhill specifies and adds: “Besides, this country is friendly to business”.

macroeconomics & budget

FORBES GEORGIA: “IT WAS A HASTY DECISION – REPRESENTATIVE OF “BAT CAUCASUS” ON RAISE OF EXCISE ON CIGARETTES”

May 29, 2020 - Felício Ferraz, general director of British American Tobacco Caucasus, indicates that when cigarette price in Georgia increased by 32% as the excise was raised by 52%, it affected inflation. “The government lost income, as it was a hasty decision”, he considers.




BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “PRIME MINISTER INSTRUCTED FINANCE MINISTER THAT THOSE PERSONS, AT WHOM SYSTEMATIC INCOME WAS FIXED WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF LAST YEAR, HAVE USED ALLOWANCE OF 1,200 LARI TOO”

May 29, 2020 - Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia instructed the Finance Minister that allowance of 1,200 lari (to be issued within anti-crisis measures) would be available also to those persons, who had systematic income within last 6 months of the last year, the newspaper reports.

As the Premier explained, the matter concerns seasonally working people.




NETGAZETI.GE: “THE PROGRAM WAS MADE FOR PREVENTION OF HOUSES’ PRICE DECLINE – NAMCHAVADZE ON SUBSIDIZING OF CREDITS”

May 29, 2020 - Beso Namchavadze, chief analyst at TI Georgia (Georgian branch of Transparency International), considers that decision of Georgian government on financing of mortgage loans’ interest is wrong.

“If we had waited for market process, there would be price correction that means that houses would decline in price”, Namchavadze declares and adds: “That would promote consumers to buy apartments”.




TABULA: “IN 2019, SALARY OF NON-STAFF WORKERS OF PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS INCREASED BY 25M LARI”

May 27, 2020 - Georgian State Audit Service reported that salaries of non-staff workers of public departments in the country totaled in 2019 to 242 million lari. If compared with 2018, the volume has increased by 25 million lari.




FORBES GEORGIA: “WHICH SECTOR SHOULD BE A PRIORITY IN GEORGIA?”

May 25, 2020 - The article brings results of analysis of 8 largest sectors of Georgian economy (agriculture, manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, accommodation/catering, finance and real estate – identified according to NACE Rev.2 classification).

The analysis indicated manufacturing as a priority, in which 569 companies are engaged in the country.

energy, oil & gas

TABULA: ““TASS”: “GAZPROM” WILL SUPPLY GAS TO GEORGIA WITH TARIFF OF PREVIOUS YEARS”

May 28, 2020 - On May 26, Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava declared that under new contract, signed with Russian Gazprom on May 1, the gas tariff will decrease by about 15%.

However, Russian news agency TASS was told in Gazprom that tariff for Georgia remains the same, as it was in previous years.




TABULA: “CONTRACT WITH “GAZPROM” RENEWED, SHARE OF RUSSIAN GAS INCREASES, OF AZERBAIJANI ONE – DECREASES”

May 27, 2020 - Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation renewed on May 21 the contract with Russian Gazprom, Tabula reports.

“I cannot name figures because of trade secret, but I can say that natural gas tariff goes down by about 15%”, Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava declared.




REZONANSI: “THE STATE ACTUALLY REFUSES “KHUDONHES” PROJECT”

May 25, 2020 - For termination of contract with the company, which builds KhudonHES, Georgian government hired Hogan Lovells and will pay 118,000 EUR to this law firm.

The contract on construction of hydroelectric station worth $1 billion was signed with Indian TransElectrica in 2011.

companies

FORBES GEORGIA: “RATING OF GEORGIA’S HEAVY INDUSTRY”

May 28, 2020 - The magazine publishes rating (according to income) of Georgia’s heavy industrial enterprises, which is confirmed by consulting companies Grant Thornton and Ebit Group. In 2018, income of the country’s heavy industry sector exceeded 1.7 billion lari, while volume of assets made up to 2 billion lari.

transport & communications

FORBES GEORGIA: “POTI INSTEAD OF ANAKLIA?”

May 27, 2020 - Implementation of the project of Anaklia port is not in agenda of current authorities of Georgia, author of the article declares. As a sea gate of the country, the government already declared port of Poti, he specifies.

finances & banking

BANKEBI DA FINANSEBI: “WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY TO BANK REGARDING POSTPONEMENT OF CREDIT INTEREST FOR MORE 3 MONTHS”

May 25, 2020 - Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia declared that “servicing of credit will be automatically delayed for the next 3 months to all citizens, who lost job, and who are beneficiaries of the state assistance within the social anti-crisis plan”.

“Besides, to all citizens, whose income has decreased, who have banking credit and will addressed to bank at their own, payment of credit interest will also be delayed for 3 months”, Gakharia said.

tourism

TABULA: “IF A TOURIST DID NOT MAKE PCR TEST FOR THE LAST 72 HOURS, HE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER GEORGIA”

May 28, 2020 - Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia declared that a tourist, arriving to Georgia, has to have made COVID-19 test for the last 72 hours. “Otherwise, he/she will not be allowed to enter Georgia”, he said.