Tag Archives: Georgia

Chinese company opens hospital near Georgian capital

TBILISI, JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hualing Georgia, a private Chinese company, opened a 100-bed hospital near Tbilisi, increasing its commitment to a new urban development and entering the crowded healthcare services market.

The new hospital cost 4.5m lari ($2.1m) to build and is located at the Tbilisi Sea New City, which is being built on the shores of an artificial lake near Georgia’s capital city. Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili opened the hospital and highlighted the significance of the project.

“This hospital is really an important project for this district. I wish good health to everyone but it’s important to have this type of medical facility close to where you live, and in this district there was no hospital before,” Mr Kvirikashvili said at the inauguration ceremony.

Hualing has invested heavily in Georgia. In October 2015, the company built a new hotel Tbilisi Sea New City. In May, it also said it will build an elevator factory in Kutaisi.

The healthcare sector in Georgia is dominated by London-listed Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG), which controls around 27% of hospital beds. In May, it bought GPC, a drugmaker that controls a 15% share of the pharmaceutical market. BGEO, a holding company that owns Bank of Georgia, owns 65% of GHG.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

ECHR says Georgian prosecutors abused their power

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Court of Human Rights said in a ruling that Georgian prosecutors abused their power during the pre-trial detention of Georgia’s ex-interior minister Vano Merabishvili in an effort to extract information regarding the unrelated trial against former President Mikhail Saakashvili. Merabishvili was arrested in May 2013 on charges of vote fraud and embezzlement of party funds. He said the charges were politically motivated.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Active Batumi builds 5-star hotel in Georgia

JUNE 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Active Batumi, a hotel and entertainment company, will build a new five-star hotel in Batumi, Georgia’s tourist hotspot by the end of the year. The new hotel will hold the Wyndham brand, which belongs to a US-based hotel and resorts chain. This would be the first Wyndham-branded hotel in Georgia. In Central Asia and the South Caucasus, the only two other Wyndham hotels are located in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Editorial: Gay marriage in Georgia

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The issue of gay rights and gay marriage in Georgia has become increasingly heated. Each side loathes the other. There is little dialogue but plenty of insults and the odd clash.

Now a move by anti-gay right activists to try to enshrine marriage in Georgia’s constitution between a man and a woman through a referendum threatens to bring this animosity to a head. And at a dangerous time.

Even at the best of times, Georgia is a tinderbox. If the activists do collect the 200,000 signatures needed to hold a referendum the vote is likely to take place on the same day as a tense parliamentary election – Oct. 8.

Georgia is a conservative society and it is likely that the activists will be able to raise the 200,000 signatures. It was always going to be a long, fractious parliamentary election campaign. The prospect of a referendum on the same day deliberating on gay rights could make it explosive.

The role of the powerful Orthodox Church and various politicians and their rhetoric will be crucial in managing the various moods.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Merkel links Georgia visa- free access to Ukraine

TBILISI, JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed visa-free access to the EU’s Schengen area for Georgia but linked it to a similar deal for Ukraine.

Ms Merkel’s statement during a meeting with Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Berlin could be seen as a boost to Georgia’s aim of gaining visa-free access to the European Union this year but the link to Ukraine is a complication.

It also comes a week after German politicians said they would block Georgia’s application for visa-free access because of links to organised crime.

“I expect that we can agree swiftly on the issue of visa liberalisation for citizens of Georgia,” media quoted Ms Merkel as saying.

One of Georgia’s main foreign policy objectives is to join the EU. Whether or not this is achievable is of secondary importance to most Georgian politicians to just making progress and visa-free Schengen access is considered a major prize.

But, significantly, Ms Merkel also underlined that she linked Georgia’s application to Ukraine’s

“For me, it is significant that Association Agreements between the EU and Georgia and also with Ukraine were signed at the same time,” Reuters quoted Ms Merkel as saying in reference to agreements signed in June 2014. “It is not very easy to explain to one country how things are with another.”

The problem for Georgia is that the European Commission is less likely to grant Ukraine visa-free access. Ukraine has a population of 45m, compared to Georgia’s 4.5m. It is also the focus of a geopolitical struggle with Russia.

Analysts have said that Ms Merkel may deliberately be trying to slow the process.

The flow of migrants from Syria into Germany and Turkey’s drive for visa-free Schengen access have made migration a politically sensitive issue forMs Merkel.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Inter-RAO sells its Georgian stake

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s state-owned power distribution company Inter RAO said the sale of its 100% stake in the Georgian company Mtkvari Energy will generate a positive return for shareholders. Inter RAO representatives told media that the total amount of the sale cannot be disclosed for a few months, but that it “greatly exceeds” the value of the assets. Inter RAO completed the sale of Mtkvari Energy to unnamed international investors on June 2. Mtkvari Energy operates a thermal power plant outside Tbilisi. A recession in Russia and opposition to electricity price increases across the South Caucasus has persuaded Inter RAO to sell assets in Georgia and Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Georgia’s C.Bank cuts rates

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 7% to combat slowing inflation. In April, the Central Bank cut its key rate for the first time in three years to 7.5% from 8%. The Central Bank has said that it wants to push its interest rate down to around 5% – 6%, described as the country’ neutral rate, after raising it last year to defend its lari currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Georgia expresses eagerness to join NATO

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a conference in Washington, Georgian defence minister Tinatin Khidasheli said that NATO should be doing more to secure Georgia as a member of the Western military alliance. She said that by approving Georgia’s NATO membership, the group would be sending a message to Russia that it can’t be intimidated. Georgia is desperate to join NATO but some members are wary of upsetting Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Central Banks in Kazakhstan and Georgia fight deflationary pressures

ALMATY, JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Currencies across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region have stabilised this year after losing 30% to 50% of their value in 2015 thanks, in part, to record high interest rates but governments are now having to deal with deflation.

As well as raising interest rates to their highest level since the Global Economic Crisis of 2008/9, Central Banks bought heavily to defend their currencies. The Kazakh Central Bank said it bought $3.7b in Jan.-May 2016 and in Georgia, the Central Bank intervened twelve times in just two months, although on a smaller scale.

And both Central Banks have now started unwinding high interest rates, hoping to spark economic activity.

Earlier this year the Kazakh Central Bank cut its key interest rate to 15% from 17%. Georgia’s Central Bank cut its interest rate to 7.5% from 8% and promised further cuts. New data from Georgia’s statistics agency highlighted the challenge. It said that prices in May dropped by 0.4%, the third consecutive month of falling prices. Year-on-year inflation in May measured 2.1%, down from a high of 6.3% in November.

And this scenario is playing out across the region.

Last month Armenia’s Central Bank said that year-on-year inflation measured minus 1.9% and immediately cut interest rates by 0.5% to 7.75%.

But Alex Nice, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that the region’s weak banking systems and high levels of dollarisation means that there is little Central Banks can do to impact economic activity.

“The exchange rate is a more powerful lever for managing prices in the economy [than the official interest rate],” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

China to invest in Georgian healthcare

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Chinese government said it will inject a $9m investment into the Georgian healthcare system, which will improve medical infrastructure in two peripheral regions. China’s vice-PM Zhang Gaoli said the investment is part of the country’s Silk Road strategy. In 2014, the Chinese government invested $4m in a similar programme.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)