Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgian MPs to vote on improving workers’ rights

TBILISI/JUNE 21 (The Bulletin) — A draft bill set to be debated this week by MPs in Georgia gives the country the chance to set an example on how to improve workers’ rights across the region, activists said.

They said that if Georgia wanted to be taken seriously as an aspirant member of the European Union it had to improve safety and rights for workers.

In a statement, Giorgi Gogia, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that a lack of oversight was putting thousands of workers at risk. “Parliament should do the right thing and adopt reforms urgently needed to stop abusive practices and improve workers’ health and safety,” she said.

Over the past few years, a few dozen people working on construction sites in Tbilisi have been killed. Dereguatation and a “profit first” approach to a construction boom triggered by an economic boom and a sharp rise in tourist numbers is putting lives at risk, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its statement.

Across the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, deaths are reported on construction sites in most major cities. Labour unions are too weak to take on big business which is generally owned by powerful members of the elite who are linked closely with senior politicians.

In Georgia, HRW said that miners were working dangerous shifts lasting 12 hours for 15 days in a row and construction workers were having to cope with little or no safety protections.

“Years of deregulation have left Georgian workers without adequate protections,” HRW said.

Georgia is the most Western-looking of the states in former Soviet Central Asia and the South Caucasus. It sees its future as a member of the EU and of NATO.

Debating potential reform to the labour laws last year, Dmitri Tskhitishvil, chair of the Georgian Parliament’s labour code commission, referenced obligations under a Georgia-EU Association Agreement, signed in 2016.

“Much remains to be done,” he said. “There are still gross violations of workers’ rights and occupational hazards in different industries.”

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenian government declines gas price rise for consumers

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YEREVAN/JUNE 19 (The Bulletin) — Consumers in Armenia will not pay any more for their gas despite a push by Russia’s Gazprom, the gas supplier, to increase prices after the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission ordered a price freeze.

The ruling is a victory for Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan who has styled himself as the champion of the people since he was propelled to power in a revolution in 2018.

In 2015, street protests against rises to electricity tariffs forced the government into an embarrassing u-turn and Mr Pashinyan was desperate not to stoke frustration now, especially with anger at the government’s handling of the coronavirus growing and the prospect of the economy tipping into a recession.

Quoting the Public Services Regulatory Commission, media in Armenia said that consumers would continue to pay a subsidised 139 Armenian drams per cubic metre of gas and vulnerable groups will pay 100 drams per cubic metre if their consumption does not exceed 600 cubic metres per year.

Instead, businesses that consume more than 10,000 cubic metres of gas per year and greenhouses will pay more for their gas, meeting some of the price rises that the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom had been asking for.

Earlier this month, Mr Pashinyan had proposed that the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union unify gas tariffs across the region.

This was rejected by the Kremlin, though, which said it needed more price flexibility to react to global market moves.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

ADB says Georgia’s debt-to-GDP rate will soar

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JUNE 19 (The Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that although Georgia has navigated through the impact of the coronavirus pretty well, so far, its debt-to-GDP ratio will still jump up to 62.5% this year compared to 44.5% last year. ADB country director, Shane Rosenthal, said that the economic downturn was also an opportunity for Georgian businesses to regenerate “more diversified and inclusive”. Georgia’s economy is set to contract by 5% this year because of the impact of the coronavirus.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

ADB cuts growth rates for the South Caucasus

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JUNE 18 (The Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ABD) joined other international finances institutions in cutting its expected growth rates for the economies of the South Caucasus because of the impact of lockdowns imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It said that Georgia’s economy would now contract by 4.9%, Armenia’s would shrink by 3.5% and Azerbaijan’s by 0.1%.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Russia plot to kill journalist was foiled, says Georgian security services

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JUNE 16 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s security services said that it had foiled a Russia-backed plot to assassinate a Georgian journalist who mimicked Russian President Vladimir Putin last year. The journalist, Nika Gvamaria, swore on TV when referencing Mr Putin last year, a tirade that the authorities said encouraged violent anti-Russia protests.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georgia says that a second person has died from the coronavirus

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APRIL 5 (The Bulletin) — Georgia reported its second death from the COVID-19 disease, caused by the coronavirus. The country has reported 170 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, a relatively low amount.

Georgia’s government has been praised for its swift action after it reported its first infection on Feb. 26. Observers said that the Georgian strategy of swiftly isolating people who have come into contact with people infected with the coronavirus, closing schools and transport networks and confining people to their homes has been aided by the Lugar Centre, a US-funded laboratory in Tbilisi which has been able to provide swift test results. Russia has previously accused the Lugar Centre of being a US biological warfare outpost.

Reports said that at least 37 people with suspected infections of the coronavirus have been transferred from the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgian hospitals.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus undermines region’s projected growth

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ALMATY/April 5 (The Bulletin) — The coronavirus will undermine what had looked like a strong year of economic growth in 2020 and instead knock the Central Asia and South Caucasus region into a recession.

Of the six countries in the region that have declared states-of-emergencies and infections of the coronavirus, only Kazakhstan has officially said that its economy will shrink in 2020 but analysts expect others to follow.

Kazakh economy minister Ruslan Dalenov said on April 2 that the combined impact of the coronavirus and a fall in oil prices mean that Kazakhstan’s economy will shrink by 0.9% in 2020.

Oil is Kazakhstan’s main export and with prices dropping by 40% to around $35/barrel because of a price war and a drop in demand triggered by the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Mr Dalenov said oil exports would fall.

“A decrease is also expected compared to previously approved growth rates in the manufacturing industry, agriculture, construction and the services sector, including trade,” he said.

Kazakhstan had previously predicted GDP growth of 4.5% for 2020. It last went into a recession in 2016 after a previous oil price collapse.

In Armenia, the Central Bank is still predicting GDP growth this year but only of 0.7%, down from an earlier prediction of 7.6%.

Other countries have held off giving predictions on the economic cost of the spread of the coronavirus although they have all said that their original growth estimates are likely to be heavily reduced.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Central Asia and the South Caucasus tighten coronavirus lockdowns

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YEREVAN/April 5 (The Bulletin) — Battling to stop the spread of the coronavirus, governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus intensified lockdowns that ban people from leaving their homes.

At least 17 people have died across the region with the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus, although analysts think the real figure could be many more. Health ministries and international donors are now worried that the region’s underfunded and under-resourced hospitals and health systems will buckle if there is a surge in infections.

On March 26, Armenian deputy PM Mher Grigoryan appeared to betray his nervousness about whether Armenia’s health service could cope with rising infections.

“We have an obvious problem, which is outstanding everywhere else in the world and it is important to solve here in Armenia,” he was quoted as saying. “It is the modernisation and re-equipment of the healthcare system. Here, too, we must take measures.”

In the region, only Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have not reported any infections, to the derision of observers who think it is unlikely that either country has escaped the coronavirus that has been ripping across the world since it appeared in central China in December.

Armenia and Kazakhstan have been worst hit by the coronavirus, with 822 and 569 people infected by April 5, but Kyrgyzstan appears to be most vulnerable economically. Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov has already asked for emergency financial support from the IMF.

As for the intensified lockdowns, the Kazakh authorities have told people that they can only leave their homes every other day and in Azerbaijan people have to notify the police via an app or an SMS if they are going out onto the street.

In Armenia, where PM Nikol Pashinyan had only a few weeks ago said that the coronavirus could easily be beaten, the government has ordered all businesses, restaurants and cafes to close until at least April 10.

He has been criticised for holding referendum campaign rallies in March that may have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus.

“Compared to Azerbaijan and Georgia, our corona infection stats are higher. Am I the first to say that the reason for this is the referendum campaign?” said Samvel Grigoryan, a public health analyst.

A referendum on the status of the country’s top judges had been set for April 5. This has now been postponed.

Armenia’s government has said that the rate of infection is slowing, but people told The Bulletin’s correspondent that they are worried.

“We need to obey,” said Margarita Aghayan, 56, who is confined to her two-room apartment in a Yerevan suburb with her husband, her daughter and granddaughter.

“I feel very scared. I feel horror. I am scared of the people who don’t take this seriously.”

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georiga pledges $606m to prop up economy

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APRIL 1 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s government pledged $606m to help business try to weather the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the Central Bank said that it was relaxing its lending and capitalisation rules for smaller banks to free up another $400m.

On the $606m aid for businesses, Georgian PM Giorgi Gakharia said: “This is the help that will be directed to the maintenance of jobs, to the maintenance of companies, to the ongoing production of companies and to the maintenance of current businesses.”

The Central Bank has also been selling its US dollar reserves to prop up its currency. The lari has stabilised, although it is still at an all-time low.

Georgia’s economy ministry has said that the pandemic will knock the country’s GDP growth rate, but it has not said by how much.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijan frees journalist who says he was abducted from Tbilisi

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MARCH 27 (The Bulletin) — Afgan Mukhtarli, the Azerbaijani journalist freed from prison in Baku last month, once again accused the Georgian government of colluding with Azerbaijan’s government over his abduction from Tbilisi and subsequent arrest in 2017. “If they admit that I really was kidnapped in Georgia and handed over to the Azerbaijani authorities illegally, that could result in the resignation of the Georgian government,” he told the GlobalVoices website. Mr Mukhtarli was jailed for crossing a border illegally, charges he said were actually linked to his critical journalism. He has fled to Tbilisi from Baku in 2014.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin