Press Release
01/12/2009
Salome Zourabichvili, the leader of the Way of Georgia, addresses the key problems concerning the Georgian business sector and the forthcoming elections:
“The main subject of today's conference is the economy and the business environment. For the first time the Vice President of the EBRD stated that our country's business sector is in a difficult and complex state and stressed the need for the government to respect the rule of law concerning property rights.
“Although the World Bank has published statistics that portray Georgia as a reform-oriented country, this does not necessarily indicate the existence of trust in the business sector. It is common practice for the government to act in favour of certain companies or investors to the detriment of others. There are frequent reports of seizures of disadvantaged companies' assets, including property, which are later found in the ownership of the government's favoured companies.
“Turning our attention to the road construction industry, governmental business officials have done exactly that; they have taken a major construction contract from an Israeli company called Astrom and awarded it to Azerin Saatservisiis, owned by Vano Chkartishvili. Astrom was due to build the first and fourth section of the Manglisi-Ninotsminda road, yet without putting it to tender, Azerin Saatservisiis now owns the rights to that part of the project. Another example of this is the Gombori road construction project where an Arabian company, which formally won the contract, has lost out to Vano Merabishvili's company 'New Energy', which has taken over the contract. Even large, high profile companies such as Kazbegi, Elit Electronics, Geocell, Magti and Caucasus Online are subject to intense government pressure that forces them to kowtow to the government's influences.
“The government likes to draw our attention to Georgia's successes in investment; as a result of which, we are to believe that our country is to benefit from the 100 new hospitals that the government has fervently been promising us for some time now. They have laid plans to sell two hospitals – one in December and another in February – yet there has been no information on this made available to either the foreign investors or the Georgian public. It is clear that as well as an obvious lack of transparency, there is also a very tenuous and superficial relationship with legality in this sector. Therefore, perhaps unsurprisingly, investment has been significantly lower than it may otherwise have been.
“One of the key countries to benefit this legally lax approach to business is Russia. During my time in government, Zurab Jvania fought to curb the rampant spread of casinos and gambling arcades in order to inhibit the Russians' ability to launder money in Georgia. Despite his best efforts, the law was changed, and Georgian casinos are now the destination of choice for Russian money-launderers.
“The second subject I want to address today is the next elections. As the government has begun its election campaign, businesses have been pressurised into funding the ruling party at the expense of reinvestment in the Georgian economy.
“In a manner reminiscent of the Soviet era, the ruling party has plastered the capital city in propaganda, claiming success in all its promises, despite the fact that the vast majority of these dreams have never been realised. Our land has not been returned to us and we are still fighting desperately high levels of poverty. Not only is the government making claims that are untrue, they are doing so with our money.
“I want to urge every single person in the Opposition to fight this injustice with all our might during the election campaign. Elections, be they local, parliamentary or presidential, are our chance to fight against the National Movement for the Georgian people. We need to start fighting today because these elections are our last chance. We need to ask ourselves this: Do we want to continue with this system and drown or do we want to survive? The Opposition needs to prepare for a showdown with the government. Now is not the time for thought; it is the time for action!”
