DEC. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — US-based Frontera Resources said its final geological assessment of the South Kakheti gas complex it operates in Georgia will be completed in the first quarter of 2016. Frontera said it also plans to shortly start production, which will initially amount to 77m cubic metres of gas annually.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia said that it would ease visa regulations on Georgians, another sign that ties between the two neighbours are normalising after years of strained relations. Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 but relations have improved since Mikheil Saakashvili quit as Georgian president in 2013. The Russian foreign ministry said it may even lift visa rules for Georgians altogether.
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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian government said the development of the Gudauri ski area will cost around $150m to build, the first time that a price tag has been put on plans to give the country what officials say will be a world-class winter sports resort. Canadian mountain resort developers Ecosign and consulting firm Ernst&Young have drawn up plans to develop infrastructure at Gudauri, a ski resort around 120km north of Tbilisi. The government’s Partnership Fund is set to be one of the biggest investors in the project.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Commission said that Georgia had passed its benchmark test required for it to be eligible for a visa-free treaty with the EU, a major step towards the Georgian government’s key foreign policy objective of integrating more closely with the West.
It’s now expected that the European Parliament will vote sometime in the first half of next year on whether to formally allow Georgians visa-free entry to the Schengen region.
The Schengen region is named after the town in Luxembourg where EU members states struck a deal to ease travel requirements. Britain and Ireland, both EU members, declined to sign up to the deal. Norway, Ice- land, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are non-EU members who have signed up to the agreement.
And Georgia’s leaders appeared confident the European Parliament would vote to allow them easier access to Europe.
PM Irakli Garibashvili called it a historic day.
“Our country has confirmed once again that we are frontrunners among EU’s Eastern Partnership countries,” he said. “In response, Europe tells us that it is open for Georgian citizens.”
If the European Parliament did vote to allow Georgians visa-free entry it could irritate Russia which is sensitive about former Soviet states moving towards the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Defence ministers from Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia met up in Istanbul for their regular twice yearly meeting. Although no policy statements were made the meeting is significant for its timing. Turkey is looking for allies to bolster it in its row with Russia, triggered when one of its warplanes shot down a Russian fighter-jet over Syria last month.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank increased its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 8%, its highest level since 2012. The move preceded a heavily telegraphed quarter of a percentage point increase by the US Federal Reserve that piled more pressure on Emerging Markets. Georgia’s interest rate measured 4% at the start of 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea opened its first embassy in Georgia, highlighting Georgia’s increased prominence on the world stage and also, perhaps, South Korea’s rising interest in the South Caucasus. S.Korea also gave Georgia’s foreign ministry computer equipment worth $100,000.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The oil terminal at the port of Batumi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, will be among the companies that Kazakhstan sells off to investors during a privatisation round in 2016 and 2017. In 2008, KazTransOil, a subsidiary of state-owned Kazmunaigas, bought the Batumi oil terminal. Kazakhstan needs to sell off state-owned assets to raise cash.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia and China have agreed to begin free trade talks, an important step in strengthening relations. China has become an important economic player in Georgia. Georgia’s economy minister, Dimitri Kumsishvili, said he wanted to see Georgian wine and other agricultural goods exported to China.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
DEC. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Patriarch Ilia II, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, appears to have embarrassed Georgian PM Iralik Garibashvili by asking to be granted the power to pardon prisoners only to withdraw the request after Mr Garibashvili issued a statement in support of the idea.
After watching a play put on by prisoners with Mr Garibashvili, Patriarch II told reporters that, alongside the president, he should have the right to pardon them of their crimes.
Mr Garibashvili didn’t comment at the time but the next day, his office said that he would push for the issue to be debated in parliament.
Shortly after Mr Garibashvili’s statement, though, Patriarch Ilia II appears to have changed his mind.
The Patriarch’s press office said: “It was an idea voiced with the desire for solidarity, support and compassion towards them [the prisoners] and not as a demand to discuss this proposal at a legislative level.”
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)