Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia complains to Russia

DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s ministry of defence complained to Russia that one of its helicopters had flown into its air- space without permission. The complaint heightens tension between Russia and Georgia. Relations have improved between the two neighbours since a war in 2008.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

World Bank funds road in Georgia

DEC. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank has approved funding of $140m to upgrade a motorway running east-west across Georgia, media reported. Georgia’s infrastructure needs upgrading and the east-west motorway has been identified as an important project which will improve transport routes for 2.2m people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Georgia boosts hydropower and talks up united energy market

DEC. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Water and Power (GWP) said it has started construction of a new hydropower plant near Tbilisi, part of a broader investment package designed to boost Georgia’s electricity generating capacity.

The Saguramo hydropower plant will cost 10.5m lari ($4.38m) to build and be operational by the end of 2016.

Importantly, it will feed its electricity straight into the Tbilisi power system.

And the timing of the start of construction at the Saguramo 4.4 megawatt plant was pertinent.

Only a couple of days earlier, Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze told media that he wanted to see a united energy market in the South Caucasus.

“It is logical to create a common energy network with Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which will create a single regional energy market,” media quoted him as saying.

Georgia is deficient in energy and is currently negotiating with Russia to import more gas.

It has unveiled a large hydropower investment plan which at its centre has the much-delayed Nenskra dam in the northwest of Georgia. Nenskra will have a power generating capacity of 280 megawatts and cost $1b to build.

But Mr Kaladze appeared to suggest that he wanted to hedge his bets and develop a pan-South Caucasus energy market that also included Turkey and Russia.

“Taking into account existing and future projects, it is possible to connect the energy system of the South Caucasus and Georgia will be an energy bridge, ensuring the growth of exchange and trading of electricity,” he said.

So far, though, there has been a less than ecstatic response from the rest of the region, unsurprisingly given the fraught nature of most of the neighbours’ relations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

FDI looks set to rise again in Georgia

DEC. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Foreign direct investment in Georgia, an important part of its economy, was 17% less in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2014, the Georgian statistics agency said.

Georgia’s FDI rate has only just started to recover from the war against Russia in 2008 and the 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis.

In total, net inflow of investments in Georgia measured over $1b between January and September. And this net inflow has picked up pace throughout the year. In Q1 it measured $175m, in Q2 $355 and in Q3 $489m.

The transport and communications sector received by far the greatest volume of inflows with $218m invested in Q3. Construction has been up and down. For most of 2013 it recorded near zero FDI before recording large growth in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Georgia’s CBank talks of rate rise

DEC. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank chief Giorgi Kadagidze hinted at another interest rate rise to control inflation. He said inflation would peak next year before dropping back. At the start of last month, Georgia’s Central Bank increased its key interest rate by 0.5% to 7.5% — it’s highest level since 2011.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

UAE fancies Georgian capital as prime development spot

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — UAE-based Green Valley International said it was launching a 500m dirham ($136m) luxury housing development project in Tbilisi aimed specifically at investors from the Middle East.

The Green Valley City project near the Georgian capital will spread over 88,000 square metres, roughly the size of 12 football pitches. In the ten apartment blocks the company plans to build, there will be around 510 residential units.

Ali Saeed Al Salami, general manager at Green Valley said: “Georgia is one of the most attractive destinations for real-estate development and investments in Europe. For this project, we will be providing special offerings and facilities to Arab and GCC citizens who would like to invest in it.”

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a group of countries that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Other investors have been piling into the Tbilisi property market. China’sHualing Georgia has opened its first hotel in Tbilisi Sea New City and Axis said it would complete two $83m twin towers in the city centre.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Georgia to increase gas supplies from Russia

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s energy minister Kakha Kaladze met with Alexei Miller, the chairman of Russia’s Gazprom, in Luxembourg to discuss increasing imports of Russian gas. No deal has been signed although even the talks have stirred controversy in Georgia where memories of the 2008 war against Russia are still very fresh.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Markets: FDI pick up in the South Caucasus and Central Asia

DEC.11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are picking up again in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. After a difficult year hooked around the fall in the rouble and the drop in oil prices, investors have appeared to regain confidence in the economies of Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Or at least they have decided to just get on with it and deal with the economic downturn.

At least this is what the numbers show.

In Armenia FDI, measured by Central Banks as inflow minus outflow, reached $260m in the first 9 months of the year, a 17% increase compared to the same period last year.

In Georgia, although down 17% compared to the first three quarters of 2014, FDI grew progressively throughout the year, to reach just above $1b at the end of September.

Kyrgyzstan, which saw a surge of FDI in the first half of the year, might be on track to keep the trend going due to renewed confidence in the country’s extractive sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

EU says to give Georgia grant

NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union confirmed that it was preparing to give Georgia a grant of 100m euro to help improve parts of its society and business climate. Most of the grant is directed to Georgia’s agriculture sector but public bodies and utilities will also receive a chunk of the grant.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Georgia strips Saakashvili of his citizenship

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree stripping Mikheil Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship.

When he was in power between 2003 and 2013 Mr Saakashvili painted himself as proud Georgian patriot and it is likely that losing his Georgian citizenship will hurt and even humiliate him.

Under Georgian laws, though, dual citizenship is illegal.

In May this year, Mr Saakashvili took Ukrainian citizenship, allowing him to take up an offer by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to be governor in Odessa.

This meant that, formally, the government had to strip Mr Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship.

“Based on the law of Georgian citizenship, President Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree terminating Mikheil Saakashvili’s citizenship due to his acquisition of a foreign country’s nationality,” the Georgian presidential press service said.

The AFP news agency quoted Mr Saakashvili as telling Georgia’s Rus- tavi-2 TV station that he was angry.

“They can take away my passport, but they can’t do anything with my love for my Motherland,” he said.

Although the constitution bans Georgians from taking dual nationality it doesn’t force foreigners taking Georgian citizenship to renounce their original nationality.

Georgia’s prosecutor-general also wants to arrest Mr Saakashvili and charge him with various crimes. Mr Saakashvili has always said the charges are politically motivated. Several of Mr Saakashvili’s former government colleagues and government officials have been arrested.

The European Union and the West have also warned Georgia’s government not to politicise the criminal system.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)