Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgian authorities inaugurate construction work

MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian authorities inaugurated construction work in Tbilisi at what will become the fifth-largest technological institute in the world. The Cartu Foundation, supported by Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili, will cover the costs, which will run to several million euros, according to the government. It is still unclear when the Georgia’s Technological Institute will be completed. Georgia is trying to position itself as a tech hub for the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Georgian opposition members face violence in election

MAY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Leaders and activists of the opposition UNM party were beaten in a fistfight outside polling stations in the village of Zugdidi in western Georgia. Local by-elections were being held in several municipalities across Georgia and the Georgian Dream ruling party won in seven out of nine races. The UNM cried foul, accusing Georgian Dream supporters of the beating. The interior ministry issued arrest warrants for the perpetrators.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Ex-Georgia President says he has voice in UNM

MAY 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mikheil Saakashvili, former President of Georgia, now head of the local administration in Odessa, Ukraine, said he would go back to Georgia to campaign for his UNM party ahead of parliamentary elections next October. Mr Saakashvili told the Georgian TV channel Rustavi 2 that he still has a say in the UNM, the party he founded, and that he wants to be engaged in both Ukraine and Georgia.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)

Gay rights activists protest in Georgia against WCF meeting

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Georgia arrested several gay rights activists ahead of a planned demonstration outside a meeting of the US-based World Congress of Families, highlighting tension in Georgian society between liberal and conservative factions.

The activists accused the World Congress of Families, which campaigns against gay rights and heavily promotes conservative Christian values, of being deliberately provocative by choosing May 15 – 18 as the date for its annual meeting.

Importantly May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. In Georgia, it is also the anniversary of violent attacks on a pro-gay rights march in Tbilisi in 2013. Around two dozen activists were wounded in the clashes, one of the worst attacks in the former Soviet Union on gay rights activists.

Outside the World Congress of Families meeting activists placed a rainbow-coloured stool, or taburetka.

“The taburetka became a symbol of oppression and daily violence,” Mariam Kvaratskhelia, representative of the LGBT Georgia lobby group, was quoted in DFW as saying.

“LGBT people exist in Georgia and they’re experiencing daily oppression. We’re calling the Georgian Orthodox Church to stop generating hate towards LGBT persons within society.”

In the 2013 attack on gay-rights campaigners, a heavily-bearded Orthodox priest was photographed wielding a stool and using it as a weapon against the activists.

It was an image that has come to represent reactionary forces associated with the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Georgian society is generally regarded as being conservative, an issue that is likely to play a role in October’s parliamentary election. Politicians have already been looking to win support from the large groups which support the Georgian Orthodox Church. This group is generally considered to be anti-gay rights.

Opinion polls have shown that the election is going to be close.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

People protest in Georgian mine

MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Residents of Ieli, a small village in the Svaneti region in the north of Georgia, demonstrated against a gold mining company that had started excavation work in the area. Dozens of protesters said that they didn’t believe that Optical System, a St Kitts and Nevis-based company, had a valid licence. The local government later showed that the company had been given an exploration licence in 2005.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Currency woes in Uzbekistan, Georgia and Armenia

MAY 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An IMF paper on the state of money markets across the South Caucasus and Central Asia said that most currencies are still overvalued against the US dollar, despite depreciations that have taken place over the past 18 months. The IMF highlighted that in January the Uzbek sum was 30% above its market value, and the Georgian lari was around 15% overvalued. The Armenian dram was the only currency that, according to the IMF, traded below its value.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Georgia changes rules for Constitutional Court

MAY 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Opposition MPs in Georgia have protested against what they said was a rushed reform of the Constitutional Court that will curtail its power and subvert it to the government.

The ruling Georgian Dream coalition set the final vote on the bill for Saturday May 14, just 14 hours after it had sparked furious arguments in parliament.

The opposition, led by the United National Movement party (UNM), the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, said the bill was in effect a punishment against the Constitutional Court for ruling against the Georgian Dream several times in the past few months.

Shalva Shavgulidze, opposition MP for the Free Democrats, said: “The only purpose of this bill is for the ruling party to gain control over the Constitutional Court.”

These charges were rejected by MPs from the Georgian Dream. MP Eka Beselia said that the changes were needed to reduce the previous UNM government’s influence over it. “This Court has to be fully liberated from political influences,” she said.

The bill, now adopted, raised the quorum for the 9-member Court from five to six, effectively making it more difficult for the Court to veto laws supported by the government.

Democracy lobby groups have said that this will make the Court a less effective check on the government’s executive powers.

Under the new law the minimum numbers of judges needed to make a decision was also raised to seven from six, again making it more complicated to pass judgements.

In September, just a few weeks before what will be a fiercely fought parliamentary election, President Giorgi Margvelashvili, will appoint new judges to the Court after two of the sitting judges reach the end of their 10-year terms.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijani and Georgian delegation to attend ceremony TAP construction start

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Georgia sent a delegation to Greece for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), part of a network of pipelines that will pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, in a show of support for a project that the European Union considers vitally important.

Georgia’s PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Azerbaijan’s deputy PM Yagub Eyyubov attended the inauguration event with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Special Envoy at the US State Department Amos Hochstein.

“Georgia, as a transit country, reiterates its commitments to the diversification of energy supplies to Europe and expresses supports for existing and future energy projects connected to the Southern Gas Corridor,” Mr Kvirikashvili said.

The so-called Southern Gas Corridor, a network of pipelines, is scheduled to be completed in 2019 and will send 16b cubic metres of gas to Europe every year.

TAP will ship 10b cubic metres from Greece’s border with Turkey across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. From there it will be pumped to central Europe.

Mr Kvirikashvili said the project “creates a new dimension for economic cooperation and for the security in the region.”

Azerbaijan is an integral part of the project. The Corridor’s pipelines will be filled with gas from its major fields, chiefly Shah Deniz.

Azerbaijan is also invested in the construction and management of the pipelines. SOCAR, the state energy company, owns 20% of TAP. BP (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (16%), Enagas (16%) and Axpo (5%) consti- tute the remaining shareholders.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Stock market: Georgia Healthcare Group

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Georgia Healthcare Group posted a perky 33% increase in revenues in Q1 2016, sending the Group’s share price up by 5.9% on May 17. In its brief history on the London Stock Exchange, GHG seems to have entered into its best period so far with share prices now firmly above £2. This week, it gained 16.7% to close at 231p on Thursday.

It had started trading in November 2015 at 170p/share, giving early investors a 35% return.

The company was also bullish about its acquisitions in Georgia’s healthcare market.

“We have just completed the acquisition of GPC one of the largest retail and wholesale pharmacy chains in Georgia,” GHG CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze said in a statement. “This acquisition supports our desire to be the leading integrated provider in all areas of the [Georgian] healthcare ecosystem.”

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Georgia Healthcare Group posts strong Q1 results

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s largest healthcare company, Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG), posted a 33% rise in revenue in the first quarter of 2016, highlighting rising demand from Georgians for private medical services.

Revenues increased to 71.7m lari (around $33m) in the first quarter of 2016, a jump of a third from 2015. The company attributed the positive results to its ability to grab market share in the healthcare sector.

And this is set to grow, according to GHG, which bought Georgian pharmaceutical retailer and wholesaler GPC earlier in May.

“We are clearly on track to deliver our target of more than doubling 2015 healthcare services revenues by 2018,” CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze said in a statement.

GHG also positively reviewed the recent tax reforms that the Georgian government put in place for next year. Under the new rules, undistributed profits will no longer be subject to a 15% profit tax. The government has said that the new tax rules are designed to encourage companies to invest, giving the economy a boost. In the short-term, though, the new tax code will reduce government income.

“We expect this amendment to take effect for our healthcare services earnings on 1 January 2017, and this is expected to significantly reduce the Group’s effective tax rate from 2017 onwards,” Mr Gamkrelidze said.

The healthcare sector in Georgia has proven resilient during the current economic downturn. This economic slowdown, which has hit the entire Central Asia and South Caucasus region, forced Georgia’s lari currency to fall by 30% in the past 18 months and has slowed GDP growth.

Last November, GHG listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

BGEO Group, a London-based holding company that owns Bank of Georgia, owns a 65.07% stake in GHG.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)