Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia issues free ID cards

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian government said it would issue ID cards free-of-charge between May 26 and June 26, in an effort to prepare voters for a parliamentary election in October. Georgia’s electronic ID cards generally cost 30 lari ($13.6). The government is pushing for voters to have the correct identification documents to showcase its transparent electoral environment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

UNM MP quits 5 months from Georgia election

MAY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Five months before a parliamentary election, Georgian MP Giorgi Vashadze quit the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party because of what he described as its “closed” leadership style.

Mr Vashadze said he planned to set up his own political party in a move that may draw some support away from the UNM in what is expected to be a tight election battle with the ruling Georgian Dream coalition in October.

“People waited for new initiatives from the UNM, but this has been in vain,” Mr Vashadze told local media.

The UNM had excluded Mr Vashadze from its top ten list of candidates for the election in October. His former colleagues in the UNM accused him of being self-interested.

“Vashadze’s ambition was to be in the top ten of the party list. This was voted down. Quitting the party because of that reason is completely irresponsible,” Sergo Ratiani, MP and UNM’s secretary general, said.

Even so the row will hurt the UNM which is trying to position itself as a government in waiting ahead of the election. It lost power to the Georgian coalition in an election in 2012, having governed Georgia for eight years.

In late April, a poll sponsored by the local branch of the US-funded International Republican Institute showed just how close the election is likely to be. It said that the Georgian Dream party was still the most popular party with support at around

19%. The UNM came in second with 18%, but the surprise was the 12% support for for the Georgian Development Foundation, a movement founded by opera singer Paata Burchuladze.

Around 25% of the people polled, though, said they were either undecided on who they would for or wouldn’t vote at all, setting the scene for what analysts have said will be a close, hard-fought, election.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Georgian President visits France

APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian President Giorgi Margve- lashvili finished a three day trip to France with a meeting with French President Francois Hollande. Media reported that after the meeting, both presidents released messages praising the other for their support. Georgia and France have relatively close ties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Georgia to use Bitcoin tech for new land registry

TBILISI, APRIL 27 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian government and BitFury, a US company with a base in Tbilisi that develops technology used by the Bitcoin virtual currency, will jointly develop a land registry system which they hope will set new global standards.

The new model for the National Agency of Public Registry will reduce bureaucratic practices and costs for citizens, according to officials.

“By building a blockchain-based property registry, Georgia can show the world that we are a modern, transparent and corruption-free country that can lead the world in changing the way land titling is done,” Georgian media quoted Papuna Ugrekhelidze, the agency’s chairman, as saying.

Blockchain technology is a data- base system that Bitcoin has pioneered. It is considered the most efficient system to log data.

The Agency of Public Registry said the cost of a land registry transactions will drop to virtually zero.

Last September, BitFury said it would invest $100m in a new Technology Park in the Gldani district of Tbilisi. BitFury already operates a data centre in Gori, 70km west of Tbilisi.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Banking activity drops in Georgia

APRIL 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data from Georgia’s Central Bank showed savings held in Georgian banks dropped by 2.4% between February and March. At the end of March, Georgia’s commercial banks held 24.7b lari, a drop of 800m lari. This is the lowest savings level since November last year. The Central Bank is concerned that inflation has slowed. Like the rest of the region, Georgia has been vulnerable to a fall in its lari currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Georgia cuts interest rate for the first time in 3 years

TBILISI, APRIL 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate for the first time in three years, performing a policy U-turn designed to boost its flagging economy.

It cut its key refinancing rate by 50 basis points to 7.5%, having steadily raised it from 4% throughout 2015. It said this was the first step towards a rate of around 5 or 6%.

“The Monetary Policy Committee considers it necessary to start phasing out the tight monetary policy, which means the gradual reduction of the refinancing rate down to the neutral level in the medium-term,” the Central Bank said in a statement.

“The rate of further monetary policy softening will depend on the revised inflation forecasts.”

In March, annualised inflation fell to 4.1% from 5.6% in February.

The Central Bank also dropped the lari-denominated minimum capital requirements for its commercial banks from 10% to 7% and increased the US dollar-denominated requirements.

It did this to try to push more lari into circulation and to take the US dollar off the market.

Alongside the less-than-rosy economic news, the Central Bank said that there had been signs of improved economic activity, especially in construction, but that high interest rates and other issues were a brake on potential growth.

“Another factor keeping the economic growth low is the negative impact of the economic situation in Georgia’s trade partners, reflected in the decrease of remittances and weakening of external demand,” it said.

Russia and Greece have traditionally been Georgia’s main source of remittances. Russia is currently in a recession linked to low global oil prices and Western imposed sanctions. Greece’s economy remains in recovery-mode after the impact of the 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis.

Like inflation, GDP growth has also been sluggish. The Statistics Committee said GDP grew by 2.3% in Q1, one percentage point slower than the expectations. The Central Bank expects 3% GDP growth in 2016.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Editorial: Georgia’s Central Bank

APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank sounded confident in its review of the country’s monetary policy, but looking at the data, the cheers are a bit more muted.

Yes, high interest rates have curbed inflation and stabilised the lari exchange rate — together with a few interventions in the currency market, that is — but economic activity and GDP growth have suffered.

The Central Bank has now hinted that the country needs to reach a new normal and said it will lower interest rates further in the next months.

Should Georgia be able to weather what analysts deem to be the last months of a two-year crisis, it could see growth pick up again in 2017.

The crucial issue, though, is how to boost the economy without pushing inflation too high.

Georgia is moving towards a more West-friendly economic environment, changing the tax code and giving incentives to foreign companies looking to set up shop in the country.

Both the IMF and the government now hope that their bet on the neo- liberal model will work.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Georgian officials arrest uranium smugglers

APRIL 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s security services said they had arrested six men, three Georgians and three Armenians, who were trying to sell uranium on the Black Market. Police found a container with an undisclosed amount of uranium in a Tbilisi home where one of the alleged smugglers lived. Authorities in the South Caucasus often have to grapple with smugglers of radioactive materials.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Georgian businessman plans $100m cement plant

APRIL 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian businessman Cezar Chocheli will enter a joint venture with an unnamed Chinese company to build a $100m cement plant in Senaki, around 250km west of Tbilisi. The new factory, will employ around 500 people. Investors expect construction to begin in June.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Georgian parliament introduces new tax code

APRIL 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian parliament adopted a new tax bill taken from the so- called ‘Estonian model’, which mandates corporate tax to be imposed only on distributed profits. The government forecasts a loss of 600m lari ($260m) in 2017, the first year of the new tax regime. “This loss is expected to be fully compensated by economic growth,” deputy finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili told MPs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)