FEB. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) — The real estate unit of London-listed Georgia Capita, m2, said that it has bought the remaining 40% that it didn’t already own in a Tbilisi luxury hotel for $5.2m. m2 did not name the yet-to-be-built hotel but it did say that it would be the only luxury hotel in its collection.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
FEB. 6 (The Conway Bulletin) — OPIC, the US-government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation, will invest $50m into the $120m construction of a new port terminal at Poti on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, media reported. At a press conference, Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze said the new port was vital to Georgia in maintaining its key position as an entry point for goods transiting between Europe and Asia. OPIC’s mission is to help US businesses expand overseas and also to push US foreign policy objectives.
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>This story was first published in issue 399 of The Conway Bulletin on Feb. 8 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a poll conducted in December 2018 for the US’ National Democratic Institute (NDI), 38% of Georgians said that the country was moving in the wrong direction, compared to 29% of Georgians who said it was moving in the right direction. These proportions have remained fairly consistent since June 2017.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia arrested Grigol Ivaneishvili, head of the Tskaltubo Municipality, for demanding a bribe of 250,000 lira ($95,000) in exchange for agreeing to sell the main municipal building. Georgia has won accolades for stamping out corruption over the past 15 years or so although activists have said that there is still much work to do.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
TBILISI/Jan. 30 (The Conway Bulletin) — Seven construction workers living in a single-room apartment in Tbilisi died from carbon monoxide poisoning, bringing to 13 the number of people killed in the Georgian capital this month from gas leaks or explosions.
Only a few days earlier ministers had said that they wanted to make gas leak sensors obligatory in residential apartments. Georgian media said that the foreman from the construction site that the men were working discovered their dead bodies when he went to investigate why they hadn’t turned up to work.
Earlier this month a gas explosion killed four people and a gas leak killed two people in Tbilisi. Campaigners have said that although Georgia is experiencing a construction boom off the back of a growing economy and a booming tourism sector, it has lagged behind on safety standards.
Last year, two tourists from Oman also died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their Tbilisi hotel room. Media reports said that in 2016-18, 87 people died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Georgia.
Georgia’s construction industry will also come under scrutiny. In 2018 there were several deaths from accidents on construction sites and questions will be asked as to why seven workers were sharing a one-room apartment. Media reported that a makeshift boiler was the cause of the leak that killed the seven men. Georgia’s interior ministry declined to say whether they were migrant workers or Georgians.
Kazakh company KazTransGaz supplies gas to residential blocks in the city. It issued a statement denying any responsibility for the accident.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Central Bank cut its interest rate to 6.75% from 7% and said that is was likely that further rate drops would follow because of sluggish inflation, despite a projected increase in economic growth and consumer growth. In an interview with Reuters, Georgian Central Bank chief Koba Gvenetadze said that inflation was ticking along at 1.5% compared to a target inflation of 3%. Mr Gvenetadze said interest rates were likely to drop to 6% or 5%.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — A British man who fled to Georgia from a manslaughter trial in London in May 2018 handed himself in to Georgian police. Jack Shepherd, 31, was convicted in absentia of the manslaughter of Charlotte Brown when his speedboat capsized on the River Thames during a date in 2015. It took British police several months to track Shepherd down to Georgia where he had been living openly, going on dates and drinking in Tbilisi’s bars and nightclubs.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
TBILISI/Jan. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — Investor business groups in Georgia described the perception of Georgia’s legal system as “extremely negative” in a letter to PM Mamuka Bakhtadze as a row over nominations for judges to the Supreme Court intensifies.
Georgian civic groups have also complained about the nominations of 10 judges to the Supreme Court in December by the High Court of Judges.
In the letter, the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, the Business Association of Georgia, the EU Georgian Business Council and the International Chamber of Commerce in Georgia said the nominees have made “questionable decisions” in previous cases.
“The selection of Supreme Court judicial nominees, without a fair, transparent and predictable process reinforces the extremely negative perception of the Georgian judiciary and court system that is held by many observers,” the letter said.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 18 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia will continue its role as a transit country for gas supplies between Russia and Armenia, Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze said. Until January 2017, Russia had paid Georgia by giving it 10% of the total gas it sent to neighbouring Armenia. Since 2018, it has paid a fee. This year, after Russia increased gas prices, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said he wanted to buy more gas from Iran.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
JAN. 12 (The Conway Bulletin) — Thirteen people have died from swine flu in Georgia this winter, Georgia’s health minister David Sergeenko told media. Mr Sergeenko denied that the flu was developing into an epidemic but also said that the government would cover the cost of the vaccine. Armenia has also reported at least one death from swine flu, a regular flu, this season.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019