Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgian MPs force debate on gas deal with Russia

JAN. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Opposition MPs in Georgia’s parliament have forced a debate on Feb. 3 on the terms of a new gas deal struck with Russia at the beginning of the year, piling pressure on energy minister Kakha Kaladze to reveal details of the new arrangement. Under the deal, Georgia will pay for gas from Russia directly, rather than take a 10% cut of the volume that Russia sends to Armenia. Mr Kaladze has refused to give out details of the deal but his opponents have called it a risk to national security.

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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Ukrainian airline to start flights to Georgia

JAN. 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — YanAir, a small Ukrainian airline, is planning on running flights from Odessa to Tbilisi and Batumi, media reported. The new routes highlight the increase in air traffic to the South Caucasus. Batumi is being developed as Georgia’s main tourist hub.

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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Russian military exercises in Georgian region

JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia has said 2,000 soldiers will take part in a major military exercise in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia later this month. The exercise will also involve tanks and artillery and will be viewed as a provocation by Georgia. South Ossetia was the focus of fighting between Georgia and Russia in a five day 2008 war. Russia held a similar military exercise in South Ossetia in 2016 too.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgian lari surfs through a turbulent period of highs and lows

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Don’t be fooled by the parity rating on the percentage change for the Georgian lari.

This is a turbulent time for the Georgian currency. The graph on the right shows its recent spikes.

Just before Christmas it bottomed-out at an all time low against the US dollar of 2.81/$1. It has recovered since then, with the help of Central Bank intervention – it sold $40m on Dec. 20 totalling $280m in 2016 – but it is still working at a level that is 30% below its high of 212/$1 in June 2016.

Government ministers have blamed an overly strong US dollar for the lari woes but Georgia’s own macroeconomic data has shown up weaknesses which may be undermining confidence in it.

The Central Bank had been happy to let its currency slide. This laissez faire attitude appears to have abated now though and there have been warnings that interest rates will start to rise as the battle hardens to boost the currency. 2017 will be another turbulent year for the lari.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgians feel upbeat about future

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> There is a new public opinion poll out in Georgia, produced by the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Is this important?

>> In a word – yes. This is one of the rare and generally reliable snapshots of public opinion that is produced in Georgia. Most other polls are biased towards whoever has commissioned it and their political allies.

>> So what did this one tell us?

>> The data is a result of surveys done in November, shortly after a parliamentary election that the Georgian Dream won easily. These results are reflected in the poll data which showed that for the first time since August 2014, more people felt that Georgia was going in the right direction. It was a close run thing, though, with 36% of respondents saying that Georgia wasn’t changing one way or the other, 32% saying it was moving in a positive direction and 27% saying that things were getting worse. This compares well to March 2016 when 40% of the respondents said that Georgia was heading in the wrong direction and only 20% said it was heading in the right direction.

>> And how did this compare to previous poll results?

>> When the Georgian Dream, the coalition funded, by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, first won power in 2012, the poll results for Georgia moving in a positive option were sky-high at around 60% or the high 50s. Things had slipped though.

>> What else does the poll tell us about Georgia?

>> By far the two most important issues for people polled were jobs and rising inflation – 58% of respondents said that jobs were a major concern and 38% said inflation was a major concern. Territorial integrity (27%) was ranked fairly highly but joining NATO (3%) and joining EU (3%), the things that occupy most of the politicians most of the time were towards the bottom of the list.

>> Have people’s priorities changed? Were they different when Georgia’s economy was doing better?

>> Much like the rest of the region, Georgia’s economy has been under immense pressure recently with a recession in Russia and an overly strong US dollar. Over the past few months, Georgia’s lari has plummeted in value and the government has warned of tough times. But, and this is the point, in good times or bad, NDI says that Georgians top five priorities are the same. These are, in order of preference – jobs, inflation, poverty, territorial integrity and pensions. Clearly other than issues over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it’s all about the economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgians doubt authenticity of UNM split

TBILISI, JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the streets of Georgia’s capital city, the UNM’s split was received with scepticism. Georgians are generally weary of the political infighting.

Giorgi, a PhD candidate in Finance, said the split will make the opposition weaker.

“Instead of accepting election results, Saakashvili’s loyalists were planning to declare election results as fraud and fight back from the street,” he said.

“The breakaway section chose the pragmatic way to oppose the ruling party using their parliamentary mandates. However, this move made the opposition weaker.”

Ani, a civil servant, said she doubted the real reason behind the split. “We need to be careful, overall it is still the UNM. Not sure that this is a real split and not a political game again”, she said.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgian region sets election

JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The rebel Georgian region of South Ossetia has set its upcoming presidential election for April 9. The incumbent leader of South Ossetia, which declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was recognised by Russia and a handful of other countries as a separate nation in 2008 after a Russia- Georgia war, is Leonid Tibilov. He has said he will compete in the election to try to win another, and final, five year term. The election is likely to raise tension with Georgia.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

China eyes major purchase on Georgian coast

TBILISI, JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China underlined its ambitions to boost its presence in the South Caucasus by signing a deal with the Georgian government that could lead it to buying up 75% of the Poti Special Industrial Zone on the Black Sea coast.

Poti is the main entry and exit points into and out of Georgia for goods. It is majority owned by APM, a unit of Maersk Group.

Owning a majority stake in the Poti Special Industrial Zone would be a massive boost for China and would give it a major presence on the Black Sea for the first time.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by the Georgian government and CEFC China Energy Company Limited at a ceremony in Tbilisi attended by Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

Georgian media spun the deal as part of China’s One Belt, One Road project which aims to revive the Silk Road across Central Asia between China and Europe.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Analysts are positive on Georgian Healthcare in 2017

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Healthcare, part-owned by Bank of Georgia, has been drawing plaudits. Since its debut on the London Stock exchange in November 2015, the group’s share price has more than doubled to 350p from 170p.

But now analysts are predicting further growth. Stock market analysts throughout 2016 stuck a buy rating on Georgia Healthcare, a valuation that they have stuck with this year. This rating is helped by positive moves from the company itself, including buying the ABC pharmacy at the start of the year. This is the fourth largest pharmacy group in Georgia.

And this, clearly, means well for the company in 2017, according to Georgian Healthcare CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze.

“This further consolidates GHG’s position as the leading integrated player in the Georgian healthcare ecosystem, and we look forward to delivering on the expected synergies and targeted growth strategy for the enhanced pharma business,” he was quoted as saying after the deal.

Other pharma and healthcare groups in the region have failed to gain much traction but Georgian Healthcare appears set for another decent 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Two new opposition parties emerge from one in Georgia

TBILISI, JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two new parliamentary minority factions — European Georgia and European Georgia for a Better Future — have emerged from the group of 21 MPs who quit the UNM opposition bloc earlier this month, leaving the once all-powerful party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili barely surviving.

The party split did not take people by surprise. Disagreements among party members had become increasingly vicious and public, especially after the UNM’s crushing defeat in October’s parliamentary election. Many of the arguments focused on whether the divisive, bombastic Mr Saakashvili, who now lives in exile in Ukraine, should still play a role in the UNM.

In an email interview with The Conway Bulletin, Akaki Bobokhidze, one of the MPs who left the UNM, said that Mr Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 until 2013, was now a political hindrance.

“Saakashvili thinks that it is not possible to defeat Bidzina Ivanishvili [the patron of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition] and to change the government through elections,” he said.

“There is a difference in how those who stayed and those who left evaluate the past and the errors that the UNM made, especially in the human rights field. The two groups take considerably different views of the party’s future.”

The 56-year-old Mr Bobokhidze is one of the most experienced MPs in parliament having won his seat in 2001 as a member of the now defunct Initiative Group. Known for his fiery temper, he has been involved in brawls inside parliament.

Mr Bobokhidze’s had been a staunch ally of Mr Saakashvili and it was clearly with some reluctance that he agreed to split from the main UNM party. It was only in December that he was urging the party to unite around Mr Saakashvili.

“Saakashvili is the politician that made the corrupt post-Soviet Georgia into a successful country. Regardless of his position in the party, I hope he will remain a successful politician in Georgia’s political history,” he said in his interview.

Mr Bobokhidze said the new parties’ focus would be on winning control of local councils at municipal elections later this year and then concentrating on building alliances to win back power in parliamentary elections scheduled for 2020.

And this collaboration could still that the remaining UNM parliamen- tarians, Mr Bobokhidze’s former col- leagues, have a role to play.

“Our new party is open for collaboration with all the parties that shares our values and think that the informal governing of Ivanishvili is damaging our country,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)