Tag Archives: Georgia

Construction starts on $85m aircraft parts plant in Georgian capital

TBILISI, SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s PM Irakli Garibashvili officially initiated construction of a factory near Tbilisi airport that will produce structural components for airplanes.

Last March, Israel’s Elbit Systems and Georgia’s Partnership Fund, a state-owned holding, set up a joint- venture called Aero-Structure Technologies to build the $85m plant.

“The fact that Elbit Systems is returning to Georgia means a lot to me personally and to the Georgian government, because this is an expression of confidence towards our government and our country,”

Mr Garibashvili said at the opening ceremony.

The plant will give Georgia’s tech industry a major boost as well as create 300 new jobs. It will open in 2017. A Georgian government press release said the plant’s production was aimed at the major aircraft manufacturers Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Sukhoi.

For Elbit, one of Israel’s biggest weapon’s manufacturers, the new factory marks a remarkable turn around in its business relationship with Georgia.

Elbit Systems had previously built and sold Hermes 450 reconnaissance drones in Georgia. In 2011, though, it fell out with the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The government launched a $100m law suit against Elbit which it settled for $35m.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Norway backs Georgia

SEPT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norway’s foreign minister Boerge Brende visited Georgia to meet with President Giorgi Margvelshvili and PM Irakli Garibashili. In Tbilisi Mr Brende underlined Norway’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity. Importantly for Georgia, Norway is a NATO country.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Georgian president signs banking law

SEPT. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili signed into law a bill that switches supervision of commercial banks from the Central Bank to a state-linked body called the Financial Supervisory Body. Mr Margvelashvili tried to veto the switch but was blocked by parliament. Inter- governmental banks have criticised the switch and called it political.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

FDI jumps in Georgia by 82% in Q2 2015

SEPT. 9 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Foreign direct investments, so vital for Georgia’s economy, jumped by 81% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2014, the statistics agency said.

The data showed that Georgia attracted investments worth $355m between April and June 2015, up from 196m in 2014 and also up from the 175m in the first quarter of this year.

But foreign investment inflows to Georgia have been volatile over the past few years. In the second half of last year, for example, Georgia attracted investment of over $1.2b although it has damped this year.

Geostat didn’t give a reason for the increase in foreign investment although it said that the single largest investor in the second quarter of the year was Azerbaijan.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Borajet flies to Georgian city

SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a boost for Georgia’s tourist sector, privately-owned Turkish airline Borajet opened a new air route from Istanbul to the Georgian Black Sea resort town of Batumi. Borajet will fly to Batumi three times a week from Istanbul’s second airport. Turkish Airways already flies from Istanbul’s main airport to Batumi.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Georgian TV channel cuts talk shows

AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The owners of the Imedi TV channel in Georgia cancelled two popular talk shows, triggering accusations that they had bowed to pressure from the ruling Georgian Dream coalition. Opponents of Georgian Dream say that it is intimidating criticalmedia.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Georgian PM sacks foreign minister

SEPT. 1 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili sacked his foreign minister in a cabinet reshuffle that once again promoted people close to his own political mentor, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Giorgi Kvirikashvili was shifted to the foreign ministry from the economy ministry and Tbilisi’s deputy mayor Dimitri Kumsishvili took over the economy ministry brief. Both men had previously worked at Cartu Bank, Mr Ivanishavili’s private bank. Mr Garibashvili, the PM, also worked at Cartu Bank.

Opponents of PM Garibashvili said that he was just doing his master’s bidding by replacing Tamar Beruchashvili, who had disagreed with him publicly on some policies, as the foreign minister but he said the changes were linked to a shift in policy direction.

“The government focuses on economic development and employment. This should also determine our foreign policy,” he said .

Korneli Kakachia, a professor of political science at Tbilisi State University and director of the Georgian Institute of Politics, told The Bulletin that Mr Ivanishvili single-handedly decides what happens in government.

“Mr Ivanishvili only trusts insiders with whom he has worked. That is why Cartubank employees have a privileged position,” he said.

This is a widely held view. Earlier this year, the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said they were concerned that Mr Ivanishvili wanted to promote people who worked at Cartu Bank to prominent government positions.

“A pattern can be detected of individuals who were formerly employed by companies associated with Bidzina Ivanishvili being appointed to senior positions in the public service,” it said in April.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Activists attack aquarium in Georgian city

AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Up to 10 animal rights activists brawled with security guards at a dolphin aquarium in Batumi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, media reported. The activists were staging a protest and had demanded that the dolphins be released into the Black Sea. Media reported that the police arrested and charged at least six men for breaking into the aquarium.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Stock market: Tethys, Nostrum, KAZ Minerals, TBC Bank

SEPT. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Shares in Toronto- and London listed Tethys Petroleum, whose focus is on oil and gas production and exploration in Central Asia, fell significantly after rival Nostrum on Aug. 28 cut a third off the value of an earlier buyout offer.

Tethys shares in Toronto fell by 20% and in London by 29.3%. Tethys responded by saying that it would honour the exclusivity agreement with Nostrum and then look to other companies for potential buyers.

Nostrum said that it had cut its offer after a new due diligence project showed that the original offer had overvalued the company.

In mining, shares in London-listed KAZ Minerals lost 14.2% of their value between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4, wiping gains from August’s devaluation.

KAZ Minerals used to be called Kazakhmys and is focused on copper production.

The Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) of TBC Bank, which are traded in London, fell by around 8% over the week to $9.12, the lowest price to date for the bank.

TBC, which is the largest retail bank in Georgia and counts PM Irakli Garibashvili as a director, has been trading its GDRs in London since 2014.

The Georgian economy, like the rest of the region, has been dealing with the fallout from the slowdown in Russia’s economy. Georgia is also vulnerable to Greece, its second largest source of remittances. There was no particular news from TBC that would have pressures its GDRs.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Salini Impregilo wins $575m Georgia hydropower project

AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Korean Water Resource Corporation (K-Water) awarded Italian engineering group Salini Impregilo a contract worth $575m to build the Nenskra hydroelectric power plant (HPP) in the Svaneti region of northwest Georgia.

K-Water, in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and the Korean Exim Bank, are developing the 280MW project which will have an overall cost of around $1b.

Salini Impregilo has already worked in Georgia on various projects, including the construction of a new motorway.

“The work will have to be completed in 62 months from the signing of the contract,” Salini Impregilo said in a statement.

“The Project will be composed of a main dam, a weir on the Nakra river, a transfer tunnel, a headrace tunnel to the powerhouse and the actual open-air powerhouse with four vertical-axis Pelton turbines.”

The Nenskra HPP project has been talked of for a few years. The Chinese Sinohydro had been selected to develop a 210MW project in 2012, only to withdraw later. Both the cost and the capacity of the HPP have been increased since 2012.

Irakli Kovzanadze, CEO of Partnership Fund, which controls stakes in major Georgian infrastructure projects for the state, underlined the importance of the project for Georgia.

“This hydropower plant will be the largest one in Georgia since the country’s independence,” Georgian media quoted him as saying.

Georgia produces three-quarters of its electricity from hydroelectric plants, although it still imports more than it produces.

One of the key strategic aims of the Nenskra HPP is to help Georgia reduce its energy dependence on Russia, which supplies it with most of its gas.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)