Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia’s parliament approves security chief

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Georgia’s parliament approved the appointment of Vakhtang Gomelauri, the current minister of interior, as head of the new State Security Service.

Its a controversial move as the State Security Service, which will take over most of Georgia’s intelligence gathering duties, was created to break up the power of the interior ministry.

Before becoming the interior minister, Mr Gomelauri was the head of the bodyguard team protecting Georgia’s most powerful man Bidzina Ivanishvili who set up the ruling Georgian Dream coalition.

And Georgia’s opposition have already accused the government of turning the position into a political football with Mr Gomelauria’s appointment.

“Gomelauri’s appointment shows that setting up the State Security Service to depoliticise security related matters is an absolute farce,” said Chiora Taktakishvili, an MP for the United National Movement during the vote in parliament.

As head of the new State Security Service, Mr Gomelauri will be in charge of defending Georgia’s borders, fighting terrorism, and preventing corruption.

Lincoln Mitchell, a political scientist, told the Bulletin it was, always unlikely someone without a close relationship with Mr Ivanishvili would have been appointed to the position. He also said, though, that he thought the creation of the agency was a step in the right direction.

“The Georgian Dream government has made Georgia more free than the previous regime, but has not moved as quickly as it should have to dismantle the tools that their predecessors used to limit freedoms,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgian parliament passes banking law

JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament passed a final reading of a bill that strips supervision of the country’s commercial banking sector from the Central Bank. The World Bank had urged the government to drop the bill. President Giorgi Margvelashvili now has to sign the bill into law although he has said he may veto it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Youth Olympics begin in Georgia

JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia began gearing up to host the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi between July 26 and Aug. 1, one of the biggest sporting events it has hosted. Around 3,500 young athletes will compete for medals in a number of sports.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgian electricity price rises approved

TBILISI, JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian state regulators approved a price increase for electricity, a rise that will irritate consumers and also the power companies who said the rise was not enough to cover the cost of production.

Electricity prices have become a major political issue across Central Asia and the South Caucasus because falling local currencies have forced up the cost of imports needed to fuel power stations.

In Armenia, thousands of people have protested for weeks about a sharp increase in electricity prices.

Perhaps mindful of the political fallout, Georgia’s regulators tried to limit price increases. The price rises appear to vary enormously between 2% and 30% depending on consumers’ overall annual use.

Zurab Gelenidze, CFO of Georgian Industrial Group, said the price rises were not enough. “The sustainability of the entire system will become questionable,” he told media.

Also reacting to the price rises, PM Irakli Garibashvili said the government would give out subsidies to some lower income families.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgians learn to love their US fast food

TBILISI/Georgia, JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — US fast-food chain Wendy’s has just opened its sixth restaurant in Georgia, Dunkin’ Donuts its eighth. Despite a general economic downturn, the fast-food scene in Georgia has exploded over the past year or so.

The lone McDonald’s in central Tbilisi had since the 1990s been the only US fast-food restaurant in the country. Now locals can choose between Wendy’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, KFC, Subway and Domino’s Pizza.

And Georgians, whose culture hinges around long meals with friends and family, have turned the fast-food sector into a social scene of their own.

The fast food restaurants in Tbilisi are often filled with women dressed in high heels and their best dresses, men in buttoned-up shirts, young children in their Sunday clothes and teenagers sporting the latest fashion.

“We come here every Saturday,” Nitsa, 13, said as she started to tuck into her burger at a Wendy’s restaurant in central Tbilisi. “We like the food a lot, but we also just love to sit here and talk for hours.”

Families come for a day out and young couples for a romantic dinner. Most are also looking for a change from Georgian food.

Tamuna Mosidze, who was pregnant, had another reason for choosing to eat in one of McDonald’s fast-food restaurants.

“It’s the best service in town and you know the ingredients are quality,” she said.

And the US fast-food restaurants appear to have noticed this distinctive Georgian feel about their restaurants.

Sophie Chogovadze, head Marketing Wendy’s and Dunkin Donuts, said: “We wanted to make it about the experience, to make it more than just tasty food.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgia’s parliament passes new budget cuts

JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting the recent economic downturn across the region, Georgia’s parliament passed a new budget for 2015 that cut government spending and reduced projected GDP growth of the country to 2% from 5%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgia’s parliament speaker travels to Brussels

JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliamentary speaker Davit Usupashvili travelled to NATO HQ in Brussels to urge for its membership of the Western military alliance to be sped up. “I told our partners very clearly, unequivocally that Georgia is ready for more,” he told Georgian media.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgian car imports fall

JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The value of car imports to Georgia slumped by 26%, in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014, data from the statistics agency showed, more evidence that an economic slowdown across the region is hitting Georgian consumers. Overall, imports in H1 2015 were down 9% compared to H1 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Money transfers to Georgia drop

JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Overall money transfers to Georgia in the first half of 2015 declined by 22.7% to $538m, media reported quoting the sta- tistics agency, a heavy dent in Georgia’s overall income.

Remittances from Russia, which is suffering from a downturn in its economy, dropped by over 40% to $204m and from Greece, which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, by 19% to $83m.

Last year, the data showed, remittances accounted for nearly 9% of Georgia’s overall GDP, a figure which highlights their importance to the country.

Georgia’s lari currency has also lost around 25% of its value since November 2014, putting more pressure on the economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)

Norwegian company buys Georgian hydropower plant

JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Enguri hydropower plant in Georgia sold 400,000 carbon credits to Statkraft, a Norwegian electricity company, media reported. The deal highlights the progress Enguri has made in becoming more professional. It is the largest power plant in Georgia, generating 40% of its electricity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)