APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Dominoes Pizza, arguably the most recognisable pizza brand in the world, opened its first store in Tbilisi on April 26, the company said in a statement. US fast food chains have been piling into Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Initial data from the Georgian statistics office showed that economic growth in Georgia has picked up since the beginning of the year. Geostat said that overall year-on-year (y/y) growth in Q1 was 3.2%. In January y/y growth was 0.5%, in February it measured 4.9% and in March it measured 4.3%.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Marriott International hotel group announced plans to open its third site in Tbilisi, media reported. The 130-room Moxy Tbilisi Hotel is part of the Marriott’s push to open its lifestyle brand across Eastern Europe. Hotel brands are pouring into Tbilisi.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s lari currency dropped to a 16-year low against the US dollar despite efforts by the Central Bank to prevent the fall.
The Central Bank said it had sold off another $40m of its reserves to prop up the lari. This was the fifth intervention of $40m this year by the Central Bank despite an earlier pledge by its head, Georgy Kadagidze, not to sell its reserves to defend its value.
Even so, the lari fell to 2.3 against the US dollar its lowest level since 1999. Since November, the lari has lost around a third of its value.
A fall in the price of oil and a drop in the value of the Russian rouble have hit the economies of Central Asia and the South Caucasus hard.
Georgia has reported a 27% drop in exports in the first quarter of 2015 compared to a year earlier and has cut its projected GDP growth to 2% from an earlier estimate of 5%. Remittances from Russia have fallen by around 20%.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US will give Georgia $20m to update its military, media reported. The cash comes at a sensitive time with Russia and the US increasingly at odds with each other over Ukraine. NATO has also said that it plans to set up a training base in Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko visited Georgia for the first time on April 23-24.
Officially, this visit, initiated by Minsk, was to strengthen Georgian-Belarusian relations. The parties signed 15 different agreements and declared that they want to boost bilateral trade from $65m/year to $200m/year.
But analysts think that this visit was planned to improve Lukashenko’s position at home, in Moscow and amongst western European leaders before the upcoming presidential elections in Belarus in November.
During his visit, Lukashenko once again expressed his support for Georgia’s territorial integrity. He also called for a better dialogue between the Kremlin and Tbilisi, and expressed hopes that Belarus, Georgia and Russia can someday live as “one family like before”.
The director of Georgian Institute of Politics Kornely Kakachia said Mr Lukashenko’s visit had some positive implications for Georgia because he expressed support for Georgia’s territorial integrity over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“But on the other hand, Lukashenko is a side player and does not have big influence on Moscow-Tbilisi relations,” he said. “Also, the president of Belarus is not the best company for Georgia to be seen with by the West.”
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Greece rejected an extradition request from Georgia for its ex-domestic intelligence chief, Data Akhalaia. Reports did not specify just why Greece’s Supreme Court had turned down Georgia’s request but Europe and the US have accused Georgia of using the law to settle vendettas.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has filed an extradition request to Azerbaijan for former president Mikheil Saakashvili, media reported. Mr Saakashvili, who is now based in New York and Kiev and is an adviser to the pro- Western Ukraine government, is visiting Azerbaijan for a conference.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has been negotiating with several low-cost airlines — including Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin — to fly to Tbilisi, media reported quoting deputy economy minister Ketevan Bochorishvili. Tourism is a major source of income for Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government said it will hand out a one-off bonus of 1,000 lari ($431) to the 2,000 World War II veterans still alive to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. The payment will boost the Georgian Dream coalition which has seen its popularity drop.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)