JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Just days ahead of the 2016 UEFA European Championship, the Georgian football team beat reigning champions Spain 1-0 in a friendly match in Getafe, near Madrid. In its 26-year history, the Georgian football team has never qualified for the top European tournament. The victory against Spain is the country’s highest achievement in football.
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said income earned from the tourist industry reached $1.94b last year, 8.3% more than in 2014. According to Mr Kvirikashvili, the number of incoming tourists increased by 14% in the first five months of the year, compared to 2015. This is important for Georgia, where tourism is a major part of its economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
JUNE 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ambassadors representing Germany, France and Italy at the European Union gave the strongest indication yet that Georgia would fail to win visa-free travel to Europe this year after they voted against the motion at a meeting in Brussels.
Perhaps reflecting wider concerns about allowing more migrants from Syria, Turkey and other countries to enter Europe, German politicians said they were against Georgia being given visa-free access because of worries over crime.
“Georgian asylum seekers are more heavily involved in organised crime than any other group of foreigners,” Armin Schuster, MP for the ruling CDU party, told the Der Spiegel magazine. This view was reflected at the ambassadors’ meeting.
Failing to win visa-free travel to Europe would be a major blow to the ruling Georgian Dream coalition only four months before what is likely to be a tight parliamentary election. Georgia wants to join the European Union and sees visa-free travel as a major step towards achieving that aim.
Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili told media that he was disappointed about the messages coming out of the European Union.
“Georgia has completed its own part and now it’s up to the European countries to take decision,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s not easy and we understand that, but all these issues, the migration crisis, internal challenges have nothing to do with Georgia’s technical readiness. We are ready institutionally, legislatively.”
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Investigations into corruption allegations at its subsidiaries in Central Asia has slowed a sale by Swedish telecoms operator Telia Company, formerly TeliaSonera, of its 59% stake in Netherlands-based holding company Fintur to Istanbul-based Turkcell, sources involved in the sale told Bloomberg News. Fintur is valued at $1b and owns telecoms subsidiaries in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, and Moldova.
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian Parliament voted to approve an earlier veto that President Giorgi Margvelashvili had imposed on a controversial bill designed to change rules and procedures for the country’s Constitutional Court. The previous week, Mr Margvelashvili had imposed a veto on the bill, after it received criticism from international observers.
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Foreign direct investment into Georgia in Q1 2016 measured $376m, roughly double the total of Q1 2015, the country’s statistics agency said. The communication and transport sector received the largest proportion of investments. The data suggests that Georgia’s economy is rebounding from a steep economic downturn last year that was triggered by a recession in Russia and a drop in oil prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)
MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — SkyBus, a small airline in Kazakhstan, opened additional charter flights for the summer months from eight different Kazakh cities to the Georgian resort town of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast. Batumi is Georgia’s tourist hotspot and the new air link shows how popular it is becoming with ordinary Kazakhs.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned company United Airports of Georgia said it had opened a tender for the construction of a new airport in the town of Zugdidi, 300km west of Tbilisi. The new airport, which will be built in the same location as the existing one, will service both domestic and international flights.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps with the Council of Europe’s criticism in mind, Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili sent a bill that would have weakened the Constitu- tional Court’s ability to temper the government back to Parliament.
Mr Margvelashvili has shown both courage and wisdom by sending this bill back. It was political meddling at its worst by the Georgian Dream coalition which had wanted to extend its control over the Constitutional Court, an independent body that is supposed to safeguard the country’s governing principles.
His action also gives another insight into the Georgian Dream coalition, only a few months before what is likely to be a hotly contested parliamentary election. PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said both that he did not agree with the veto, but also that the Georgian Dream coalition MPs would not exercise their right to override the presidential decision in parliament.
The Georgian Dream coalition is internally divided and the President and the PM disagree on fundamental issues. The governing coalition looks to be in a weak state in the run up to the election.
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(Editorial from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fighters linked to the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia detained a Georgian man for illegally crossing the border, said Georgia’s government. Akaki Misireli, 65, was sent to a detention centre in Tskhinvali, the capital of the de facto state that was the focus of a brief war between Russia and Georgia in 2008. South Ossetian forces released Mr Misireli later but the incident highlights just how sensitive the border around the breakaway region is.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)