Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia’s TBC Bank starts building new HQ

TBILISI/DEC. 20 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBC Bank, one of two Georgian high street banks listed on the London Stock Exchange, started building a new $70m headquarters in a controversial site in countryside near Tbilisi.

If the building work goes to plan, the glass and steel complex set in the Lisi Lake recreational area will open in 2026 and will be the largest corporate office in the region, an expression of confidence and intent by TBC.

In a statement, TBC emphasis that its new headquarters will provide a light and flexible workspace for 2,000 workers.

“We are creating a completely new standard, which involves the use of the best technologies and at the same time combining elements of traditional Georgian architecture in a completely modern building,” said Badri Japaridze, deputy chairman of TBC.

The headquarters is also being designed to incorporate laboratories for employees to experiment on new ideas and concepts.

But the project is not without its controversies. Set in the Lisi Lakes area, transparency campaigners have accused TBC’s founders of buying the land on the cheap, in a 2007 deal that left the Georgian state, and ordinary people, short-changed.

In a report published three years ago, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an activist group based in Berlin, said that TBC chairman Mamuka Khazaradze had bought the 354 hectare site from the government for $55m, instead of the original $182m asking price.

The new deal also dropped various conditions to improve the ecology of the area and also to improve access to the Lisi Lake area.

“Instead of being required to spend US$ 30 million on improvements, the only obligation in the new contracts is to build housing,” the OCCRP said in its report.
Mr Khazaradze, ranked as the second wealthiest person living in Georgia, has denied any wrongdoing.

Since buying the land, Lisi Lake Development and other companies linked to Mr Khazaradze have built housing, business centres on the site and also a university – the American Academy.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

IMF praises Georgia

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DEC. 20 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF handed another $41.6m loan over to Georgia, the fourth tranche of a three-year deal worth a total of $291.5m, after praising its economic performance and prudence. The IMF said that Georgia’s economic trajectory was positive although there were external risks and reserves needed to be built up. Georgia has become something of a favourite in the region for Western donors, recovering strongly from a 2014-16 economic downturn.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

Georgia Healthcare Group signs deal to build “mega hub”

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DEC. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Georgian Healthcare Group (GHG) signed a deal with Jordan-based Biolab, a subsidiary of Integrated Diagnostics Holdings (IDH) to open a 7,500sqm “mega laboratory” in Tbilisi, the biggest in the region. Under the deal, Biolab will take a 10% stake in the laboratory, a management fee and a slice of the laboratory’s profits in return for providing training and management services. IDH is also listed in London and provides healthcare services in Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Nigeria.

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>>This story was first published in issue 395 of The Conway Bulletin on Dec. 23 2018

Russia says Tbilisi is hosting secret US lab

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TBILISI/Oct. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia accused Georgia of hosting a secret US laboratory that designs and tests biological weapons, an accusation immediately dismissed by Washington as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Specifically, Major-General Igor Kirilov, commander of specialist units within Russia’s military trained to counter radiological, chemical and biological attacks, said that illegal experiments had been carried out at the Lugar Center in Tbilisi between 2015 and 2016, killing 73 people.

He based his assessment on documents released in September at a little-reported on press briefing in Moscow by Igor Giorgadze, a pro-Russia fringe politician who was a Georgian government minister 23 years ago.

“The near simultaneous deaths of a large number of volunteers give reason to believe that the Lugar Center was researching a highly toxic and highly lethal chemical or biological agent,” Major-General Kirilov said. “It’s highly likely that the US is building up its military biological potential under the cover of studying protective means and conducting other peaceful research, flouting international agreements.”

Georgia and the US denied the accusations. A Pentagon spokesperson dismissed them as fake news, part of the “Russian disinformation campaign against the West”.

The Lugar Centre was opened in 2013 and is owned by the Georgian government. It is named after former US Senator Richard Lugar and the US embassy said its mission is to research potential biological threats against people and also animals.

Mr Giorgadze is a fringe figure in Georgia. He was made State Security Minister in 1993 but fled to Moscow in 1995 after a failed assassination attempt against the then-president Eduard Shevardnadze. Since then he has dabbled in Georgian politics, promoting a pro-Russia viewpoint. Mr Giorgadze’s detractors, and there are many in Georgia, say he is sponsored by the Russian security services.

Georgia-Russia relations are still mending after a brief war in 2008 over the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia wants to join NATO, a policy objective that Russia sees as a threat.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Regus opens third office block in Tbilisi

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OCT. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Regus, the London-listed company that offers serviced offices, hot-desking and virtual offices around the world, said that is was going to open a third site in Tbilisi. In an interview with Georgia Today, Regus area manager for Georgia, Ruska Chakvetadze, said that the expansion reflected increased interest in Georgia from international companies.

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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018

Former Georgian PM takes EBRD job

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SEPT. 26 (The Conway Bulletin) – Former Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili took a job as an adviser at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In an interview with media he said that one of his main functions would be to take his experience of setting up dialogue forums between the EBRD and Georgia to Uzbekistan. Mr Kvirikashvili had been Georgian PM from December 2015 to June 2018.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

UNM candidate heads Georgian presidential election poll

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SEPT. 28 (The Conway Bulletin) – A poll for the Rustavi-2 TV station in Georgia said that Grigol Vashadze of the United National Movement party, the party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili, was favourite to win the first round of a presidential election set for Oct. 28 with 22% of the votes. Second in the opinion poll was Davit Bakradze of European Georgia with 18%. Salome Zurabishvili, endorsed by the ruling Georgian Dream, came in third. Opinion polls in Georgia are notoriously fickle. This is the last vote for a directly elected president in Georgia. If there is no clear winner the top two go into a second round.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Corruption allegations made against Georgian officials

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SEPT. 26 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eleven civil society groups in Georgia released a statement expressing concern about potential corruption by public officials. The trigger for their statement was several leaked audio conversations featuring businessmen and officials. The authenticity of the leaked phone conversations has not been validated and the ruling Georgian Dream coalition has denied the accusations.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

EIB to lend Georgia’s TBC 30m euro

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SEPT. 24 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Investment Bank (EIB), which is linked to the European Union, lent Georgia’s TBC Bank 30m euro to extend its financing of small and medium-sized companies. Officials from both banks said that they expected 600 small companies to benefit from the loan. Financial institutions have been targeting boosts to Georgia’s business sector.
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>>This story was published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018

Tbilisi’s taxis go all white

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TBILISI/SEPT. 28 The shabby-chic mosaic of Tbilisi taxis will be a thing of the past if the mayor’s office gets its way.

From next October all taxis will have to be white, the mayor’s office ordered. Although it didn’t specify which model of car taxis had to be, it also said that taxis will have to have doors opening onto the rear seats and to be left-hand drive.

“Some visual standards for taxis in the capital will be mandatory from October 1, 2019,” said Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze. “!We decided on white as the mandatory colour for Tbilisi taxis from October next year.”

Taxi driver associations, though, said that the new colour regulations will impose costs that will just force up prices for clients.

Tourism to Tbilisi has taken off over the past 12 months and the authorities have been trying to respond by smartening up the city and professionalising its taxi service.

Earlier this year, the Tbilisi city authorities imposed registration requirements for taxi drivers who have been more used to operating with light regulations.
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>>This story was first published in issue 387 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 1 2018