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WEEKLY PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY www.georgiatoday.ge

July 10 - 16, 2015

Georgia Today 24 p.Price: GEL 2.50 ISSUE No.774

BUSINESS HEADLINES

FLIGHT SCHEDULE

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One year of success has passed since the GeorgianGovernment first launched its Produce in Georgia programto encourage new entrepreneurs and stimulate localproduction.

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Accused of MisconductAccused of MisconductAccused of MisconductAccused of MisconductAccused of MisconductWhile the Georgian Government markets the country asEastern Europe’s top tourist destination, it looks like all maynot be well for foreigners here.

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OP-ED

New Law to give youngchildren the opportunity tomature, in all developmentalareas, prior to startingschool.

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JULY 10 - 1622222 POLITICS

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By Zviad Adzinbaia

American newspaper the Washing-ton Post has published an article specu-lating about potentially growing pro-Russia support in Georgia.

“TBILISI, Georgia — in this fiercelypro-Western nation that fought a briefwar with Russia in 2008, few thoughtthe Kremlin could ever regain a toehold.But with the West backing away fromGeorgia’s path to E.U. and NATO mem-bership after a year of conflict inUkraine, pro-Russian sentiments are onthe rise,” The Washington Post wrote on4 July.

“The former Soviet nation’s leadersare warning that Russia may yet prevailif Georgia is shut out from Westernclubs. Wary of further provoking Rus-sia, Western politicians have quashedtalk of NATO and the European Unionexpanding eastward anytime soon. Rus-sia has stepped into the vacuum, increas-ing its presence by opening Georgian-language outlets of its state-owned newsnetwork and deepening investments inthe energy industry and other key sec-tors,” the article reads.

Overall, the article carries negativeperceptions of Georgia’s western aspi-rations echoing the same rhetoric ofEuro-skeptics in the country.

The article mentions Georgia’s ef-forts to integrate with the West however,Georgian troops in Afghanistan, democ-ratization processes, combating corrup-tion and other unprecedented achieve-ments by the country failed to convincethe author. Moreover, the article notesRussia’s Fifth Column and the likes of

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Archil Chkoidze who openly supportGeorgia’s entry in Russia’s EurasianUnion.

Instead of seeing European integra-tion as a possibility, the analysis seemsto view this as unrealistic in the long run.“Neither Ukraine or Georgia are cur-rently on a path to NATO membership”,said a statement President by Obamabefore the Minsk agreement of 2015.

Clearly, some of the western statesare afraid of a backlash from Russiawhich can explain their occasionallyweak stance. For Georgia and Ukraine,though, this cannot be regarded as anauthentic argument to prove that Geor-gian people has opted for Russia or thatRussian nostalgia prevails here. More-over, the author forgets the Georgianyouth, professionals, uncorrupted peopleand the new generation in general, whosee the west as an unalterable future pathfor Georgia.

At the same time, the article includesquotes from David Bakradze, the stateminister on European and Euro-Atlan-tic Integration, who says Georgia’s as-

pirations are irreversible: “We don’thave time to be disappointed.”

Among many opinions garnered, thearticle cites Kakhetian small business-man Jemal Veliashvili who warns “Stopmeddling with Russia.”

According to Veliashvili, his businesshad tripled since the trade ban was lifted.The reality speaks differently, and thehopes of reopening Russian market forGeorgian businesses have faded as theunpredictable country creates artificialobstacles. Additionally, the main formatproposed by the Georgian Government(2012), the Karasin-Abashidze talks inPrague, is currently viewed as being onthe brink of failure.

The article succeeded in winning at-tention but its claims of a sea-change inGeorgian attitudes toward its northernneighbor with which it was at war lessthan seven years ago, is far-fetched andbased on slender grounds. In reality,Georgians may not back their govern-ment on many things but the Europeanaspirations it pursues are still widelysupported.

By Zviad Adzinbaia

“Russia is ready to use force againstits neighbors,” said Jens Stoltenberg,NATO Secretary General to DeutscheWelle, a German news broadcaster,about NATO’s defensive stance.

“Everything we do is defensive. Weare protecting the allies. Russia is behav-ing aggressively. The annexation ofCrimea is an aggressive behavior. Rus-sia continues providing separatists ineastern Ukraine with modern weapons,anti-aircraft systems, sends troops there– this is an act of aggression. We protectour allies, Russia uses force to redraw theborders and destabilize Ukraine,”Stoltenberg said, according to DW.

“Russia is ready to use force againstUkraine, Georgia and Moldova. Russiamore often mentions nuclear weaponsas part of its defense strategy,” Stolten-berg notes, adding that NATO is re-sponding to new security challenges in

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a defensive way, which is proportionateand in line with the alliance’s interna-tional commitments.

“We have increased the preparednessand readiness of our forces. We havestrengthened our military presence onthe eastern borders of the alliance. Wehave decided to set up a network ofsmaller headquarters in the Baltic States,Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. We havealso stepped up our air patrols and pres-ence in the eastern countries of the alli-ance in response to Russia’s behavior,”he noted.

In addition, Moscow now has a bet-ter-equipped and better-prepared army,he added.

“What is more, they conduct unex-pected maneuvers to conceal aggressiveactions against its neighbors. That is howCrimea was annexed,” he added. There-fore, by addressing these threats, NATOhas been strengthening its military ca-pabilities, being unprecedented since the

end of the Cold War, according toStoltenberg.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has re-leased a new National Military Strategy,the first update to that document since2011, saying the US is facing near-peeradversaries like Russia and China whilesimultaneously having to handle diffusemilitant groups like the Islamic State.

“Since the last National MilitaryStrategy was published in 2011, globaldisorder has significantly increasedwhile some of our comparative militaryadvantage has begun to erode,” Chair-man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen.Martin Dempsey wrote in his introduc-tion to the strategy document.

The strategy specifically calls outRussia among China, Iran and NorthKorea as aggressive threats to globalpeace. “Hybrid conflicts” — not just theIslamic State, but forces such as theRussian-backed rebels in Ukraine — arelikely to expand” – reads the strategy.

By Zviad Adzinbaia

Ukraine’s leaders watched on asKyiv’s new traffic police force under-went its initiation ceremony in Kyiv onJuly 4 with euronews reporting that offi-cials were hopeful that as many as 2,000new recruits would be able to clean upwhat is traditionally one of the country’smost corrupt institutions.

The new officers will be trained bytheir counterparts from the US, Canadaand Japan, and will be paid more thantheir predecessors.

Eka Zguladze, Ukraine’s Deputy Min-ister of Internal Affairs stated: “The sal-ary of a new recruit starts at 8,000hryvnias (342 euros). It is not millions,but it is something on which you can liveand sustain your family. We hope thatthere will be very few incidentsof corruption. What is corruption? It’s acrime, simple, full-stop.”

The new Ukrainian police officers hopethey will benefit from a similar approachundertaken by Georgia in the 2000s.

“In Georgia, police salaries increased15 times during the reforms. I hope thesame thing will happen in Ukraine. Buttoday it is very important to changewhat’s happening in the country, so thatpeople and the police will be friends andwork together,” stated Zguladze.

At this stage, 2,000 new police offic-ers will be patrolling the streets of Kyiv.

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The reform, according to the information,will be completed by the end of 2016 ifenough funds are raised.

As Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s Presi-dent, wrote on his Facebook page, thenew officers will be stationed in the incities of Lviv, Kharkiv and Odessa.

The presentation of the new policeofficers was staged in Kyiv by the high-est officials of Ukraine including thePresident, PM and Interior MinisterZguladze, who has been in office sincethe end of 2014 tasked with supervisingthe police reform in Ukraine.

Several days ago, Mikheil Saaka-shvili, Georgian ex-president and a gov-ernor of Odessa district said that Califor-nian police will train Odessa’s officers.

“Within the framework of Odessa’santi-corruption measures, the U.S. gov-ernment agreed to provide funds for thesalaries of the new team of [Mikhail]Saakashvili,” - the Governor himselfposted on his Facebook page after he metwith the US Ambassador to Ukraine,Geoffrey Pyatt.

Police reform was one of the most sig-nificant breakthroughs in Saakashvili’sreign as president and even his fiercestcritics would concede that this was suc-cessful. Ukraine now seeks to mirrorGeorgia’s success in this regard but it willbe some time before the reform will bearfruit in an institution notoriously rife withcorruption.

Jens Stoltenberg,NATO Secretary General.

New Patrol Police in Ukraine.

Dechert Georgia, through the con-tribution of partners Archil Giorgadzeand Nicola Mariani, joined by senior as-sociates Ruslan Akhalaia and IrakliSokolovski, as well as Ana Kostava andAna Kochiashvili, is partnering withGeorgia Today on a regular section ofthe paper which will provide updatedinformation regarding significant legalchanges and developments in Georgia.In particular, we will highlight signifi-cant issues which may impact busi-nesses operating in Georgia.

Dechert’s Tbilisi office combines lo-cal service and full corporate, tax andfinance support with the global knowl-edge that comes with being part of aworldwide legal practice.

Dechert Georgia is the Tbilisi branchof Dechert LLP, an international lawfirm that focuses on core transactionaland litigation practices, providing world-class services to major corporations, fi-nancial institutions and private fundsworldwide. With more than 900 Lawyersin our global practice groups workingin 27 offices across Europe, the CIS,Asia, the Middle East and the UnitedStates, Dechert has the resources to de-liver seamless, high quality legal servicesto clients worldwide. For more informa-tion, please visit www.dechert.com orcontact Nicola Mariani at nicola.maria-ni@dechert.com.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS –CORPORATE GOVERNANCEThe Supreme Court of Georgia (the

“Court”) recently published two impor-tant decisions on cases brought by theLEPL Revenue Service of the Ministryof Finance of Georgia (the “RevenueService”) against directors and share-holders of limited liability companies.Both cases concerned the potential taxliabilities of limited liability companies.This edition of OnPoint reviews and ana-lyzes one of these Decisions (the “Deci-sion”) and its implications for the busi-ness community at large.

FACTUAL CIRCUMSTANCESThe Revenue Service assessed addi-

tional taxes and tax penalties on a lim-ited liability company (the “Company”)which was found liable for tax evasion.Due to its financial situation, the Com-pany was not able to pay the additionaltaxes and tax penalties to the RevenueService. The directors and shareholders(the “Respondents”) of the Companywere later found guilty by the BatumiCity Court on charges of intentional taxevasion, for which additional taxes andtax liabilities where assessed on the Com-pany. The Revenue Service brought acivil suit against the Respondents claim-ing that, despite the Company’s limitedliability status, they were responsible forpaying the tax liabilities of the Companyas compensation for damages sustainedby the Revenue Service due to the non-

JULY 10 - 1644444 LAW

10 Galaktion StreetTel: (995 32) 2 45 08 08

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payment of taxes by the Company.

JUDGMENT OF THE COURTThe Court ruled that, under certain

limited and specific circumstances, thedirectors and shareholders of the Com-pany may be personally responsible forthe tax liabilities of the Company. TheCourt further clarified that in the case athand the Respondents were responsibleand liable for the taxes and tax penaltiesassessed on the Company if the Companywas proved to be financially unable topay such taxes and penalties.

SHAREHOLDERS’ LIABILITYThe Court confirmed that under the

Law on Entrepreneurs a limited liabilitycompany is a separate legal person fromits shareholders, and therefore such com-pany is solely responsible for its owndebts, including its tax liabilities. TheCourt, however, further noted that share-holders can be held liable for the under-lying company’s debts if the sharehold-ers abuse the limited liability nature ofthe Company by implementing a taxscheme. In reference to this principle, theCourt ruled as follows: when a companyis used as a tool for acquiring undeclaredincome and the clear objective of theshareholders is to evade tax obligations,the nature of the limited liability com-pany is abused, i.e. if the privilege of thelimited liability inherent in the legal en-tity is used to avoid liability toward thirdparties and, effectively, to damage them,then the shareholders may be held liablefor the debts (including taxes) of the com-pany. On the basis of this reasoning theCourt confirmed that one of the share-holders of the Company, which was ac-tively involved in the management of theCompany and was deemed to have usedthe Company to shield itself from incur-ring liabilities, was liable for the debts,including the outstanding tax liabilities,of the Company.

DIRECTOR’S LIABILITYAccording to the Law on Entrepre-

neurs the director of a limited liabilitycompany owes fiduciary duties (i.e. dutyof loyalty) to the shareholders of the com-pany, including the duty of care. Accord-ing to this principle, the director is obliged

to take care of the company as any rea-sonable person in the same positionwould do, and act in good faith to ensurethat such action is in the company’s bestinterests. This, according to the Court,implies that the director should reject theinstructions of the shareholders if suchrejection is a better course of action forthe Company.

One additional note the Court madein its Decision was that the director’s dutyof care towards the Company includesproper fulfillment of the Company’s taxobligations. The Court also specified thatthe director’s duty to increase theCompany’s profitability must not be un-

derstood to include the right of the direc-tor to resort to tax evasion. The Court alsoclearly ruled that in cases when a direc-tor violates said duties, the Revenue Ser-vice may bring civil action against thedirector and claim reimbursement of theCompany’s tax liabilities on the basis ofthe director’s personal property.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THEBUSINESS COMMUNITY

The above described decision of theCourt is a very important developmentin Georgia. Too often, the Georgian busi-ness community assumes that sharehold-ers are immune from the tax liabilities of

a company and that the Revenue Servicemay not claim tax liability of a companyfrom the company’s shareholders; more-over, the business community often as-sumes that a director must always fol-low the shareholders instructions and thatthe director is on the safe side if he/shefollows such instructions. The Court,however, clearly debunked such assump-tions. Given the fact that the Decision wasrendered by the Supreme Court and wasmade in a case involving the RevenueService, we may expect the Revenue Ser-vice initiating similar proceedings againstother shareholders and directors. So,whatever was readily assumed aboutseparation of a company’s liabilities (in-cluding tax liabilities) from the personalliabilities of the directors and sharehold-ers can no longer be assumed and the di-rectors and shareholders of limited liabil-ity companies should take into accountthe personal implications of engagingtheir companies in certain tax planningschemes.

* * *Note: this article does not constitute

legal advice. You are responsible for con-sulting with your own professional legaladvisors concerning specific circum-stances for your business.

By Eka Karsaulidze

Ukrainian rescuers are struggling tocope with fires that have been raging inthe Chernobyl Forest in the Chernobylexclusion zone since June 29. The fire,fed by dry grass and tree roots, cameabout due to a period of hot, dry weather.The area of the fire was at one point upto 130 hectares, though this has beenreduced to 5.2 hectares in which the fire

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is still ongoing.The State Inspectorate for Nuclear

Regulation of Ukraine recorded on July1that radiation was ‘excessive’ in someareas of the blaze. Head of the Ukrai-nian Ecological League, TatianaTimochko, said that the dry vegetationand tree root systems were burning ina ground-level fire which affected thetop layer of soil where the radionu-clides are.

“The ash is carried by wind overlong distances and creates the dangerof radiation spreading over large areas.Then the ash residues get deposited onplants and soil and in water. Of course,these concentrations may be approxi-mately equal to the maximum permis-sible parameters at large distances fromthe fire epicenter. But it is a seriousthreat for the surrounding area,” shehighlighted on July 8.

The Minister of Emergency Situa-tions of Russia, Vladimir Puchkov, saidthat there is no excess of radiation nearthe Ukrainian border. According toPuchkov, Russia is using every avail-able radiation monitoring system andalso monitoring the situation fromspace. “We provide all the necessaryinformation about radiation to peoplearound the clock,” he said.

The Ministry of Emergency Situa-tions of Belarus also announced a nor-mal radiation level near their borderwith Ukraine.

Weather forecasters predict that hightemperatures will continue until Satur-day followed by an overcast period witha slight drop in temperature. Intermit-tent rain is expected to contribute to ex-tinguishing the fire.

Photo of the Chernobyl Forest provided by www.forumdaily.com

SOCIETY

proposed the candidacy of Kvitashvili,stating that successful reformer in Geor-gia could also make the same progress inUkraine”- Georgia Today wrote aboutKvitashvili back in December 2014.

Ukraine’s President Poroshenko be-lieved in the need for reforms and shar-ing international experience, whichprompted the appointment of Kvitashviliamong other Georgian reformers.

Having fronted one of the key sectorsin developing Georgia in 2008-10,Kvitashvili carried out some drastic reformsin the sphere, such as modernizing andbuilding new hospitals in different regionsof Georgia, improving health care andbuilding foundations to successfully imple-ment the general healthcare policy, whichcurrently operates in Georgia.

The well-educated Kvitashvili hasworked for the United Nations Develop-ment Program, United Methodist Com-mittee on Relief, International Fund ofthe Georgian NGO - Curatio, andthe East-West Institute. At different times,he has also consulted various interna-tional organizations based in Azerbaijan,Latvia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Greece oneducation, healthcare and social security-related issues. After resigning from theposition of Minister, he served as a Rec-tor of TSU from December 2010 untilJune 2013.

Currently, the resigned Kvitashvilisays he is to assist his successor, a newMinister, as the Georgian reformer hasunique experience which can still ben-efit Ukraine.

JULY 10 - 1666666 ECONOMY

The Galt & Taggart Research team comprises Georgian and Azerbaijani finance and economic experts who have broad experience of covering the macro and corporate sectors of the twocountries. Our current product offering includes Georgian and Azerbaijan macroeconomic research, Georgian sector research, and fixed income corporate research.

For free access to Galt & Taggart Research, please visit gtresearch.ge or contact us at gt@gt.ge.

By Tamara Kurdadzeand Nino Papava

Crude oil prices have tumbled from$112 per barrel in June 2014 to $57 inthe beginning of July. The drop can beattributed to a handful of key reasons.On the demand side, weaker economicgrowth in Asia and the ongoing weak-ness in Europe have facilitated the dropin oil prices. The gradual shift towardmore energy-efficient vehicles has alsoweighed on demand for oil. On the sup-ply side, domestic production in theUnited States has nearly doubled overthe last six years, owing largely to newcapabilities in shale oil. The spike in USdomestic supply has drastically reducedthe need for imported oil, which nowmust be diverted elsewhere. OPEC – theOrganization of the Petroleum Export-ing Countries – has further exacerbatedthe resulting glut on the world marketsby refusing to decrease production.Their rationale rests on experience – thelast time they propped up the oil priceby reducing output in the 1980s, theylost both revenues and market share tocompeting producers. This time, OPEChas in fact increased its production.

As this article goes to print, talks areunderway in Vienna between Iran and

Source: Bloomberg*July 2015 crude oil price calculated as the average price over July 1-6, 2015

Exhibit 2: Georgian imports of oil and oil products in US$ ‘000, 2014-2015

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six world powers – the US, UK, France,China, Russia, and Germany. Iran’snuclear programme – the topic of dis-cussion in Vienna – has been the causeof far-reaching western sanctions on thecountry. If the negotiators reach anagreement by the self-imposed deadlineof July 7th through 9th, sanctions on Ira-nian crude oil exports will be lifted, hit-ting the already oversupplied market

with up to 700,000 barrels per day. Ac-cording to International Energy Agencyanalysts, oil prices might tumble downto US$15/barrel if the sanctions on Iranare lifted.

The primary effect of lower oil pricesis a transfer of resources from oil-pro-ducing to oil-consuming countries. In2015, an estimated US$ 1.6 trillion willchange hands from the former to the lat-

ter in terms of savings on oil imports.For the world economy, the net effect issupposed to be positive, as wealth istransferred to consumers, who are morelikely to spend it.

How well does Georgia fare in thisnew reality? At first glance, it benefitsfrom lower oil prices as it imports 100%of its consumption. The country has al-ready saved almost US$ 100mn on itsoil import bill in the first five months of2015, which amounts to 28% savingscompared to the same period a year ago.These savings can be used on goods andservices that can fuel economic growth.Furthermore, lower oil prices restraininflationary pressures in the face of cur-rency depreciation. However, a closerlook reveals vulnerabilities, as Georgiahas significant ties with oil-producingcountries hard hit by the lower oil prices,such as Russia and Azerbaijan. More-over, the Russian slowdown, resultingfrom a confluence of low oil prices andsanctions, has impacted other CIS coun-tries. As these economies, which aremajor Georgian trading partners, havebeen battered, Georgia has experiencednegative spillover effects. Two key ar-eas of direct exposure, which have beennegatively affected, are exports and re-

mittances, while tourist arrivals haveheld up well. In 5M15, exports fell by46% y/y to CIS countries. The most sig-nificant drops have been to Russia,Azerbaijan, and Armenia, where exportshave roughly halved. Remittances de-creased by 42.2% y/y from Russia, thelargest contributor with close to 40% oftotal remittances.

In the short term, the negative effectshave outweighed the savings from alower import bill for Georgia. However,in the medium to long term, Georgiashould come out a winner. Firstly, it isgenerally understood that agriculture ben-efits more from lower oil prices than doesmanufacturing. With agriculture makingup around 30% of Georgian exports, thepotential benefits are clear. And secondly,Georgia has already demonstrated itsadaptability and resilience following theRussian embargo in 2006. If the loweroil prices are here to stay and the currentreduced level of exports to CIS countriesis the new normal, we hope that there willbe sufficient stimulus for a new wave ofdiversification of export markets. Properimplementation of DCFTA regulationsand a continued improvement of the busi-ness environment will play an essentialrole in these endeavors.

By Steven Jones

Alexander Kvitashvili, Ukraine’sHealth Minister, has left his office afterseveral months of efforts to reformUkraine’s healthcare system.

Kvitashvili insists that the resignationwas his own decision. As one of severalGeorgians leading reforms in Ukraine’smodernization, Kvitashvili was believedto lead the county’s most sensitive sec-tor, its healthcare system.

“I came to Ukraine to carry out re-forms. We are now ready to do this. Ev-erything is ready. We have changed theprocurement system. We are following atransparent, normal, civilized path. I un-derstand that many people working in the

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healthcare system are losing income. Butthis is Ukraine’s first and last chance tocarry out healthcare reform,” Kvitashvilistated.

The rampant corruption which haswidely permeated into the system hadmade Ukraine’s healthcare sector veryunhealthy, as had happened in Georgiayears before. However, a solution to theUkrainian problem was not to be foundby the Georgian technocrat.

“The newly formed Government ofUkraine gave credit to Georgian techno-crat to be officially involved in the pro-cess of reforming the health sector in thecountry, which recently underwent thedramatic events for its European future.Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko,

Alexander Kvitashvili, the now-ex Minister of Health of Ukraine. Photo from www.rbc.ua

POLITICS

Exhibit 1: Average monthly price for crude oil, US$/barrel, 2014-2015

Source: Geostat

JULY 10 - 1688888 POLITICS

By Baia Dzagnidze

Aiming to assist Georgian and Mold-ovan businesses and governments toachieve more coordinated dialogue onpotential costs and benefits in the EUintegration process, the PMC ResearchCenter, with the support of InternationalVisegrad Fund, hosted a two-day knowl-edge-sharing workshop on July 2-3.

The workshop presented the experi-ences of Poland, Czech Republic, Slo-vakia and Hungary (Visegrad countries)accumulated in the process of creatingeffective platforms for dialogue betweenthe public and private sectors.

Davit Bakradze, the State Ministerof Georgia on European and Euro-At-lantic Integration, highlighted in his wel-coming speech that Georgia and Moldo-va are in a very important but at thesame time very demanding process ofimplementation of the AssociationAgreement and DCFTA, as both coun-tries transform their legislation and mod-ernize their economies in the pursuit ofEU approval.

Government: Dialogue with Private Sector is Essential for EU Integration“Good collaboration and partnership

with the private sector is essential inthis process and [from our side] we ac-tively cooperate with them in planningand monitoring of the process of imple-mentation. Right from the beginningwhen AA entered into force, we [the of-fice] involved civil society, NGOs, busi-ness society, trade unions into planningprocess of our annual action plans,” heexplained.

Boris Iarochevitch, the EU DeputyAmbassador to Georgia, noted that AAimplementation will be a long and de-manding process. “The government andparliament are working hard on passingand implementing a number of laws, itwill take a long time as the DCFT is aroad map of 7-8 years with hundreds ofpieces of legislation to be passed andimplemented. And as the EU, we alwaysinsist on wide consultation with all thestakeholders before the laws are passed,as well as insist on impact assessmentbeing done by the government or theParliament for each piece of legislation,”he stated.

The workshop included several pan-els on various topics where governmentagencies, business associations, experts,international organizations and donorstalked about the prospects and challengesfor Moldova and Georgia, export, intel-lectual property rights, agriculture andfood safety and measures to supportSMEs.

Mikheil Janelidze, the Deputy

Minister of Economy and SustainableDevelopment talked about the exportpotential of Georgia and stated thatthe country needs to be export-ori-ented. “We see our future in the in-dustries which are export oriented. Weare a small market and it has no senseto be closed market. All the indus-tries that currently are operating, aswell as those which will develop in

the future should be export orientedand competitive on world scale,” heexplained.

“Slovakia’s experience proved thatdialog between private and public sec-tor is essential to get the most benefitsof EU economic integration and to pro-vide successful reforms and changes thatincrease economic growth and conver-gence,” stated Ivan Miklos, the ex-VicePrime Minister and Minister of Financeof Slovakia. “From our experience wewould highly recommend intensive for-mal and informal dialog and communica-tion between government and public ingeneral, including representatives ofemployers, employees and NGOs,” hecontinued.

George Welton, the Executive Direc-tor of the American Chamber of Com-merce stated that the DCFTA gives Geor-gia a huge growth opportunity (22% ofits exports are exported to the EU),structural opportunities because of itslocation and the chance to westernizeits business activities is preferable to thealternatives seen in the region.

Kakha Gogolashvili, Director of the Center of EU Studies at GFSIS, Mikleil Janelidze,the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Ivan Miklos, ex-VicePrime Minister and Minister of Finance of Slovakia and George Welton, ExecutiveDirector of AmCham.

By Nino Japarashvili

On July 6-8 the European Parliament’s plenary session took place in Strasburg.

Among many important topics, theMembers of the European Parliament(MEPs) discussed the European Neigh-borhood Policy (ENP); with a draft re-port on the review of the ENP present-ed at the session.

“We need to rethink our approachand put our partnership on a new foot-ing,” said Johaness Hann, Commission-er for European Neighborhood Policyand Enlargement, who took the part inthe EP debate.

The European Neighborhood Policy(ENP) was developed in 2004 with theobjective of avoiding the emergence ofnew dividing lines between the enlargedEU and its neighborhood. This frame-work is proposed to the 16 of EU’s clos-est neighbors out of which ten are south-ern neighbors, covered by a sub-initiateEuro-Mediterranean Partnership (EU-ROMED), and another six, Eastern Part-nership (EaP) countries, uniting post-communist states, including Georgia,into one policy framework.

With the emergence of new securitythreats from Russia on EU’s easternborder, and the rise of extremist move-ments in the southern neighborhood, the

How the New European Neighborhood

Policy Could Reflect on Georgiathe ‘neighbors of neighbors’.

Security dimension – the paper ac-knowledges that security and stabilityare basic concerns in the neighborhoodand that current developments in theregion call for a strong security compo-nent in the ENP, which has regrettablybeen missing to date.

The new ENP, if updated accordingto the above mentioned features, willimpact the EU’s approach towards Geor-gia. In comparison with earlier years, inthe frames of the new policy, Georgiawill not be assessed by the EU togetherwith the other five post-communiststates. Instead the EU will take an indi-vidual case-by-case policy approach.

The new ENP will also make a dif-ference with regards to the Russian fac-tor. While the EU ignored Russian threatsearlier, the new EU policy towards Geor-gia will be shaped with the Russian fac-tor taken into consideration. Overall, theEU’s involvement in Georgia will bemodified according to the existing secu-rity dilemmas.

The commission consultation phaseof the debate on the ENP has come to anend with institutions already havingconsulted stakeholders such as the EUmember states, partner countries, civilsociety organizations, business, local andregional governments.

European Commission launched a con-sultation process on the review of theENP in March 2015.

The draft report discussed by theMEPs in Strasburg, shows the potentialfeatures of EU’s new neighborhood policy.

Differentiation - the report stressesthat differentiation should take place notonly between Eastern and Southern part-ners but also among the ENP countriesthemselves and develop into a more tai-lor-made and flexible policy frameworkable to adapt to the diversity that exists.

Neighbors of neighbors –this notionis the biggest novelty of the new ENP.The report underlines the importance ofensuring that the ENP is part of the EU’sbroader external policy and of taking intoaccount the other strategic players thathave influence on the neighborhood –

Photo of the European Parliament, takenfrom presspack.rte.ie

Partying on the streets of Athens overnight spelled out a Europe-wide hangover onMonday, after more than 61 percent of Greeks voted to reject tough economic bailoutconditions.

Greece Debt Crisis: The People Say “No” to EU BailoutBy Nini Gegidze

Partying on the streets of Athensovernight spelled out a Europe-widehangover on Monday, after more than61 percent of Greeks voted to rejecttough economic bailout conditions. Thefinal result in the referendum, publishedby the Interior Ministry, was 61.3%“No”, to 38.7% who voted “Yes”.

Greece’s governing Syriza party hadbeen campaigning for a “No” vote, say-ing the bailout terms were humiliating.Their opponents warned that this couldsee Greece ejected from the Eurozone,and a summit of Eurozone heads of statewas called for Tuesday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprassaid on Sunday evening that Greeks hadvoted for a “Europe of solidarity anddemocracy”.

While the poll marked a victory forGreece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras,it threatened to further jeopardize thenation’s crippled economy as well as thefuture of the European currency.

All eyes now are on the EuropeanCentral Bank to see whether it will main-tain emergency funding for Greek lend-ers. The bank’s policy makers are ex-pected to meet on Monday and if the

funding is suspended, Greek banks willneed to repay it quickly — which couldbe mean the country crashes out of theEurozone.

Eurozone finance ministers say theyexpect to hear new proposals fromGreece after the country voted to rejectthe terms of a bailout.

German Chancellor Angela Merkeland her French counterpart FrancoisHollande also called on Greece to make“serious” proposals.

Meanwhile, Greek banks stayedclosed on Tuesday and Wednesday.They had been due to reopen on Tues-day but the head of the Greek BankingAssociation, Louka Katseli, said theperiod had been extended following talks

on Monday.“I really hope that the Greek Gov-

ernment - if it wants to enter negotia-tions again - will accept that the other18 member states of the Euro can’t justgo along with an unconditional haircut,“ said Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Ger-many’s Vice-Chancellor.

At an earlier news conference in Brus-sels, the European Commission Vice-Pres-ident for the Euro, Valdis Dombrovskis,said the Greek government needed to be“responsible and honest” with its peopleabout the potential consequences of thedecisions it was facing. But he said thestability of the eurozone was not in ques-tion, adding: “We have everything we needto manage the situation.”

By Christian Smith

While the Georgian Governmentkeeps marketing the country as EasternEurope’s top tourist destination, it lookslike all is not well for foreigners here.

On the night of June 23 to 24, 2015,two Spanish tourists, I.L. and J.G., wereattacked and severely beaten while trav-eling from Mestia to Kazbegi, which in-volved spending a day near the area ofZugdidi city. They decided to visit thehot springs there but found the placeblocked off for construction works. Theywere then redirected by locals to a placewhere they [the locals] had “diverted thehot springs to meet the course of a coldspring in a natural pool”. The two decid-ed to camp on a field near the spot.

According to I.L., nothing seemed outof place during the day and they fell asleepat around 11 pm only to be woken up inthe dead of night by a rainfall of thump-ing sounds on the tent. “Suddenly, westarted feeling and hearing hits on the tent,and we woke up alarmed and shouting. Ithought it might be a cow that was in thefield that night, walking over the tent –that seemed to me the only explanationfor the overwhelming weight that we feltpressing down on us.”

J.G. quickly realized that it was anattack when heavier hits started to im-pact on the tent, which eventually broke,and J.G. took the brunt of the attackwith several blows to the head as he triedto stand up. When he managed to pullhis head through the now broken tent hewas able to see the distant silhouette ofa tall, thin and slightly long-haired malerunning away towards the main road.“We don’t know if they left because theysaw J.G. finally standing up, or becausethey just ran out of stones. A terrifyingsilence was constant throughout the at-tack: we heard no shouts, no talking andno laughter. Only the brutal hits one af-ter the other… We knew that it had tobe more than one person, because of thefrequency of the hits,” I.L. told GeorgiaToday.

After an excruciatingly painful tripacross the field, I.L. and J.G. made it tothe nearest house and called for help. Anambulance arrived shortly and they weretaken to Zugdidi Hospital, where, afterundergoing several tests, they were toldno bones were broken. J.G.’s left legand right hand were immobilized in half-casts, while I.L.’s “mobility was notheavily compromised”.

At around 9 am, I.L. went to the po-lice station to provide an account of theevents. I.L. says the attitude of the po-lice was very hostile and unprofession-al. The translator, “whose command of

SOCIETY

Spanish Tourists Attacked near Zugdidi:

Police and Doctors Accused of Misconduct

English was questionable”, altered nu-merous facts about the attack and laterstated that these were unimportant. Thepair was later denied a copy of their ownstatement under the claim that it is ille-gal in Georgia. Georgia Today has sincebeen told by a representative of theHouse of Law that it is in fact the legalobligation of the police force to handover a copy of a statement to the giverof that statement if requested to do so.“The legal significance of this is franklyalarming: if we ever went to trial and thepolice happened to produce a fake copyof our statement, saying whatever otherthing they want it to say, we have noway to prove them wrong,” said I.L.

To make matters worse, after arriv-ing in Tbilisi, tests at MediClub Georgiarevealed that J.G. had fractures in bothhis left leg and right arm, despite theclaims to the opposite of the doctors inZugdidi hospital, who also failed to givehim a herapin shot, so risking “a poten-tially deadly case of thrombosis.”

According to J.G. and I.L., it seemsthat the police are not even investigatingthe case and they suspect that the de-tectives know who the attackers are butare secretly trying to have the caseclosed. “On our way back to Tbilisi westopped in Chitatskaro to thank theneighbors that helped us, and they toldus that no policemen had showed upafter the incident to ask any questions.They were even surprised at the idea ofstones being thrown at us, which meansthat no one had even remotely talked tothem about the attack,” said I.L.

Georgia Today contacted the Minis-try of Internal Affairs for more informa-tion but was told that no file has beenrecorded under the classification of ‘at-tack’ which means that either the Zugdi-di police filed the case under a differentclassification, or chose not to file a re-port at all.

J.G., hospitalized following anunprovoked attack near Zugdidi.

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Board Member of PASHA Bank SupervisoryBoard, Nikoloz Shurgaia, has been appointed as amember of the Georgian Stock Exchange Super-visory Board by the General Meeting of Member-shareholders.

The Georgian Stock Exchange (GSE) is theonly organized securities market in Georgia. De-signed and established with the help of USAIDand operating within the legal framework draftedwith the assistance of American experts, GSE com-plies with global best practices in securitiestrading and offers an efficient investment facilityto both local and foreign investors. The automat-ed trading system of GSE can accommodate thou-sands of securities that may be traded by brokersfrom the workstations on the GSE floor or remote-ly from their offices.

As of June 1, 2015, 129 companies were trad-ed on GSE, with a total market capitalization ofUSD 0.880 billion and an average daily turnoverof USD 587.55.

Nikoloz Shurgaia received his bachelor’s de-gree in Finance and Credit at Tbilisi State Univer-sity in 1995. In 2004 he obtained his Master ofBusiness Administration Degree at London Busi-ness School. He began his career at the UnitedGeorgian Bank working as a loan officer in 1994,and was later promoted to the following positions:Head of Mortgage Division; Deputy Director,Lending; Director, International Relations; andDirector, Corporate and Retail Lending.

In 2004, Mr. Shurgaia moved to Moscow andjoined ABN AMRO BANK as Assistant Vice Pres-ident, Integrated Energy Group. From 2005, hebegan working as a Principal Banker at EBRD,London. From 2008 to 2009 he worked for VTBBank (Georgia) as the Chief Executive Officer.

PASHA Bank’s Shurgaia Appointed as a

Georgian Stock Exchange Supervisor

He continued his career at Belarusky NarodnyBank as Executive Chairman, while he simulta-neously served the Bank of Georgia as DeputyCEO. From 2012 to 2014, Mr. Shurgaia workedin Azerbaijan for Rabitabank as a Chairman ofthe Management Board and since 2011, Mr. Shur-gaia has worked as an Independent Advisor andEntrepreneur in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstanand Belarus.

Mr. Nikoloz Shurgaia was appointed a Mem-ber of the Supervisory Board of PASHA Bank onJanuary 31, 2015.

Board Member of PASHA Bank Supervisory Board,Nikoloz Shurgaia, has been appointed as a memberof the Georgian Stock Exchange Supervisory Board.

Members of GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azer-baijan, Moldova) discussed the draft protocol forthe implementation of the Facilitate Trade andTransport (FTT) project in Baku on July 8.

According to the head of the Customs Co-opera-tion of the Department of International Relations of theState Fiscal Service of Ukraine, Oleg Semenenko, thisprotocol will create favorable conditions for the devel-opment of foreign trade and transport facilitation.

“Mutual recognition of the results of customs con-trols will help to accelerate customs procedures andtheir simplification,” said Semenenko. He also men-tioned that at present the protocol requires some mi-nor corrections, after which it will be submitted forfinal discussion.

“It is very important to recognize the separate

GUAM to Simplify Customs Control

Flags of the GUAM member countries.

customs inspection results due to the fact that somemember countries of GUAM have no direct bor-ders,” said Valeri Chechelashvili, Secretary Gen-eral of GUAM.

The main topics of the FTT are: legislation im-provement and harmonization, GUAM countries’borders and customs empowerment; the fightagainst terrorism, cross-border crime, smugglingand violation of customs regulations and illegalmigration; the harmonization of border and customscontrol and their clearance according to internation-al standards; intellectual property protection; andinformation system creation. These aim to will re-duce the border control time and increase efficien-cy while improving the quality of staff checkpointsand ensuring the interoperability of transit systems.

Cushman & Wakefield |Veritas Brown have be-gun to promote timeshare and fractional ownershipopportunities in Georgia. International companyRCI (Resort Condominiums International) in co-operation with Wyndham Hotel Group, who planto open three new hotels in the country, will pro-vide this service line in Georgia with Cushman &Wakefield | Veritas Brown providing support tomarket this innovative and unique opportunity.

Fractional ownership enables several unrelatedparties to share in, and mitigate the risk of, owner-ship of a high-value tangible asset, such as a jet,yacht or real estate. One of the main incentives fora fractional purchase is the ability to share the costsof maintaining an asset that will not be used fulltime by a sole owner

As for timeshare, it is an arrangement that grantsthe right to several joint owners to use a propertyas a holiday home under a time-sharing scheme.

The affiliation fee in the timeshare and fractionalownership system is $15,000.

Nina Kipiani, Head of Country and Director atCushman & Wakefield | Veritas Brown talked toGeorgia Today about the project: “Cushman &Wakefield|Veritas Brown has been active in theGeorgian market for three years. Apart from stan-dard real estate consultancy services we also pro-vide a bespoke hospitality advice. Our company

Cushman & Wakefield | Veritas Brown to Promote

Timeshare Ownership Service in Georgia

has strong ties to all the world’s main hotel opera-tors. We are happy to support RCI and WyndhamHotel Group to establish and promote this new res-idential real estate system in Georgia. A timeshareis a property with a particular form of ownershipor use rights. These properties are typically resortcondominium units, in which multiple parties holdrights to use the property, and each sharer is allot-ted a period of time (typically one week per year,and almost always the same time every year) inwhich they may use the property. A co-owner canexchange their allocated time either internally orexternally for thousands of other resorts worldwide.For example, if you own a 5-week period on a realestate in one resort zone, it can be exchanged foranother country’s resort real estate correspondingto the same value.

RCI oversees the system by controlling morethan 100 hotels throughout the world and timesharereal estate. Their interest in Georgian tourism ishuge and they believe in its potential. They plan toresearch the country’s main summer and winterresorts, specifically the real estate market, and pro-ceed accordingly. We will be joining them in pro-moting this service line.”

Ali Egilmez, Affiliate Manager of RCI, ex-plained the advantages of timeshare ownership: “Intimeshare ownership people don’t need to buy anentire property for a second home but only for thetime they need it. As we spend just 2 or 3 weeksper year on vacation it is not necessary to buy awhole house for such short periods of time. In thiscase, all clients need to buy is a piece of inventoryfor a resort,” – said Egilmez, adding that timeshareresorts are most suited to middle class families withchildren.

RCI includes 100 countries where the timesharesystem can be utilized. It now adds Georgia to the list.

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The Ministry of Health, Labor,and Social Affairs plans to reformthe Primary Healthcare service inthe near future, Minister DavidSergeenko announced during aconference on the Hepatitis CElimination Program at the Na-tional Center for Disease Controland Public Health.

According to Minister Ser-geenko, together with the Uni-versal Healthcare and HepatitisC elimination programs, his min-istry plans to focus on improv-

David Sergeenko: Implementation of Primary

Health Care Reform is Underwaying Primary Healthcare.

“Our first step was to devel-op the Universal Healthcare andHepatitis C Elimination pro-grams and to date we havelaunched both of them success-fully. At this stage, I can tell youthat now one of our main goalsis to improve primary health-care,” Sergeenko said. “To thisend we have been in active con-sultation with the internationalconsulting group ‘Global Alli-ance’.”

On July 4, the National Cen-ter for Disease Control and Pub-lic Health hosted an event onbehalf of the Hepatitis C Elimi-nation Program. The name of theconference which was attendedby many international expertsfrom France was “The Way For-ward”.

President of the ‘Global Alli-ance’, Jean Elie Malkin, talkedabout the importance of thisevent, and said it emphasized theelimination of Hepatitis C as oneof the priorities for the govern-ment, because this epidemic hasbeen shown to be a huge prob-

Dr. Jean-Elie Malkin: Unique Chance

to Fight and Eradicate Hepatitis Clem throughout Georgia.

“The Georgian Governmentemphasizes this is a first step toimprove the whole health sys-tem,” said Dr, Malkin, assessingthe Hepatitis C elimination pro-gram as a key priority to improv-ing the whole health system inGeorgia for the benefit of popu-lation.

Dr. Malkin also stressed thefact that, after the elimination ofHepatitis C, the next step will bea reform of Primary Health Care.He expressed the full support of‘Global Alliance’ in this pro-gram.

By Nini Gegidze

Georgia Today met Ioseb Jor-joliani, a recently appointed aYoung Ambassador of Georgiato the United States. Ioseb is anexchange student at Washington& Jefferson College (W&J) whois in the middle of his sophomoreyear. He is extremely excitedabout the new opportunity andsees it as the fulfillment of a life-long dream.

“I have always wanted toserve my country and assist it onits way to future success. As aGovernmental Scholar I alreadyhad a huge responsibility to main-tain a high academic GPA for mygovernmental scholarship. How-ever, this project of young ambas-sadors created a direct opportu-nity for me to play a real role in

Raising Awareness: Meet

Young Ambassador Jorjolianimy country’s development.”

He heard about the YoungAmbassador program through aGeorgian woman from Voice ofAmerica, a broadcast institution,where he interned last summer.

He said, of applying for theproject: “The application wasseven pages long and at first Ifelt lazy to complete it but ofcourse by the deadline I sent myseven page project with its finan-cial plan and all additional doc-umentations to the Ministry.”

He then went on to talk aboutthe project: “The project lasts ayear. 140 students aged 18 to 29applied from 10 different coun-tries. They finally selected onlyten. I waited for two weeks andfinally they woke me up at 7 am.”

Ioseb said questions followedabout his project as well as a sec-

ond interview.Now, with this new appoint-

ment, Ioseb will have to com-plete a project that raises aware-ness of Georgian culture and life.

He said: “I have to organizea Georgian Youth Forum inwhich Georgian students willgather and discuss the relativeworld events in relation to Geor-gia. The government also wantsto create a fellowship of Geor-gia’s friends which will includeAmerican and other internation-al students who express interestin Georgian culture.”

Ioseb is an active member ofthe W&NJR community. Hehosts a global news radio showin WNJR, plays on the Rugbyteam and is the special eventsand activities coordinator for theW&J International House.

Ioseb Jorjoliani, a recentlyappointed a Young Ambassadorof Georgia to the United States.

By Beqa Kirtava

If you’re planning to avoidthis year’s scorching summerdays in Tbilisi by paying a tripto one of Georgia’s most beauti-ful sea resorts like Kobuleti, youare in luck. Hotel Kiparis (#218Aghmashenbeli Ave.) has justopened its doors to anyone whowishes to make this holiday sea-son truly delightful.

The location for Hotel Kipar-is was specifically chosen to beboth very close to the sea andeasy to get to by public transport.The hotel consists of two build-ings which combine a total of 64rooms, including several semi-suites and two large suites. Thelocal amenities include an out-door swimming pool, 2 cafe-bars, free Wi-Fi access and a res-

Hotel Kiparis Awaits Youtaurant serving both Georgianand European dishes.

“Hotel Kiparis is a placewhere the soothing atmosphereenables our guests to spend a tru-ly pleasing summer holiday withtheir families. We have just fin-ished working on our spacious

future and will constantly striveto make our visitors’ stay evenmore enjoyable. Hotel Kipariswill soon have a large conferenceroom, special kids’ center with avideo gaming room and anima-tion entertainment alongside liveevening shows.”

The hotel’s administrationalso plans to offer guests toursaround the region, where for-eigners will have the chance tosee the most interesting sights ofBatumi and Kutaisi.

So, whether you’re planningto dive into the world of enter-tainment or let go of all the has-sle, Hotel Kiparis, with its cus-tomer-friendly prices, makes aperfect holiday stay for thewhole family. Don’t miss out andget a taste of Kobuleti this sum-mer.

garden, which is a perfect placeto relax and where you’ll be ableto see numerous extremely beau-tiful and rare exotic plants,” saidDali Metreveli, Hotel KiparisMarketing Manager in an exclu-sive interview with Georgia To-day. “We have big plans for the

JULY 10 - 16 1313131313BUSINESS

By Tako Svanidze

One year has passed since the Geor-gian Government first launched its Pro-duce in Georgia program to encouragenew entrepreneurs and stimulate localproduction.

The Head of the Georgian Govern-ment, Irakli Garibashvili, and the Min-ister of Economy and Sustainable De-velopment, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, summedup the achievements the program so farat exhibition center Expo-Georgia onJune 7.

The Prime Minister highlighted that,since launching the program, more than130 enterprises had been funded, andover 600 revamped. During the last year,90 new projects were undertaken underthe program with a collective investmentof $252 million, providing jobs for morethan 5,000 people.

“Today, more than 130 enterprisesare funded and more than 600 enterpris-es are further supported. We invested atotal of 900 million GEL in the agricul-ture sector during the past two years,”the Prime Minister said.

David Bardavelidze’s pet’s furnitureand accessories business is among thehundreds of new projects implementedwithin the Produce in Georgia program,enabling him to export goods in Europe-an Union member countries.

“Traditionally, such products areproduced in China and from there areimported into Europe. In our case, weare exclusively cooperating with a Ger-man company and managing export intoEU member countries. We are competi-tive with the Chinese market, because,unlike other Asian countries, we do notpay 12 percent import taxes. Today, weare producing 20 million Gel ($8,929,000) worth of products and we planto gradually increase this amount up to100 million Gel,” Bardavelidze said.

The Prime Minister highlighted thatthe program supports any entrepreneurwho decides to create a new industrialand agriculture enterprise.

In this case, the Government has beenoffering three type of assistance: finan-cial, infrastructure accessibility and con-sulting service.

Within the program, entrepreneurshave to pay only 1-2 percent of a pref-erential loan, as the Government covers10 percent of the interest cost. The creditline for those involved in industrial pro-duction enterprises ranges from

PrPrPrPrProduce in Georoduce in Georoduce in Georoduce in Georoduce in Georgia gia gia gia gia Assists HundrAssists HundrAssists HundrAssists HundrAssists Hundredsedsedsedseds

ofofofofof Enter Enter Enter Enter Enterprises in Firprises in Firprises in Firprises in Firprises in First st st st st YYYYYearearearearear

$150,000 to $2 million.In terms of infrastructure accessibil-

ity, which means real estate assistance,program beneficiaries are either grantedreal estate with an amortized price,which is state property, or the buildingis ‘sold’ to the applicant for a symbolic1 (one) Lari ($ 0.44).

“When you’re going to start a newbusiness, start-up funding is the mostdifficult part,” said Mamia Motsradze,owner of the Energy Georgia company.“Due to high risks banks don’t trust youto give back the money, or offer loanswith a high interest rate. Thanks to the[Produce in Georgia] project, we havean interest rate of 1-2 percent. Challeng-es are always there, but I’m sure every-thing can be accomplished.”.

Locally produced VS ImportGaribashvili announced that the Geor-

gian Government had set a goal to grad-ually replace imported agricultural goodswith locally produced alternatives.

“I had conversations with the lead-ers of our neighboring countries whohave successfully promoted local pro-duction and development programs.They have followed the path for yearsand have had good results. They havestrong agricultural and industry sectors.Establishing such enterprises creates jobsfor many Georgian people. This is oneof the main tasks of our Government,”Garibashvili said.

“I want to emphasize that we are notagainst imports. On the contrary, we

welcome foreign companies to Georgia,but for us the main concern is the devel-opment of local industry and the cre-ation of new jobs for our citizens,” headded.

The Georgian PM stated that gov-ernment officials are going to hold talkswith persons who have obtained licens-es to extract the country’s natural re-sources.

“The waste of our natural resourceshas taken place over the past twentyyears. As a consequence, we have hun-dreds of licenses issued for unique re-sources, which, unfortunately, are notused. This happens because these peo-ple seized the state resources throughdifferent persons’ lobbying efforts at thetime and these resources go unused to-day. This is a crime. No one has the rightnot to use the country’s resources andto reserve them only for personal inter-ests,” Garibashvili said, adding that itwas shameful that so many Georgiancitizens were living in poverty.

“We can start to implement projectstogether with enterprises. Produce inGeorgia and cheap Agro-Credit programsprovided by the state are everything anentrepreneur could ask for. Within theprogram entrepreneurs have to pay only1-2 percent of a loan, as we cover 10percent,” Garibashvili said.

The Prime Minister also announcedthat several components will be addedto the program for its further develop-ment.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili speaking at the Expo-Georgia summary ofProduce In Georgia.

By Beqa Kirtava

“Cyber Security,” a term which wouldhave undoubtedly drawn a surprised re-sponse of “what!?” just a decade ago, isgradually turning into a buzzworthy top-ic in Georgia, with more and more atten-tion being directed towards the cyberthreats that the country faces.

Earlier this month a special regionalworkshop on cyber security was held inGeorgia, bringing together more than 50representatives of 18 countries. Thetwo-day event was organized by the DataExchange Agency (DEA), within theframework of NATO’s Science for Peaceand Security (SPS) program. Accordingto the Head of the DEA, Irakli Gvene-tadze, the project served as “the firsttime NATO has participated in such ahigh-level workshop in Georgia”.

The aforementioned event, amongstmany others, is a logical continuation ofGeorgia’s stance against cybercrime, whichwas publicly declared in 2012 when thecountry ratified the Council of Europe’s(CoE) Convention on Cybercrime (2001).

According to the Ministry of Internal Af-fairs (MIA), the steps towards makingGeorgian legislation more coherent withthe Cybercrime Convention were taken in2008-2009 and, today, Georgia is activelycooperating with Estonia and the US Fed-eral Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in orderto “increase capacities of the GeorgianMIA operative units in the process of com-bating cybercrime and the seizure of digi-tal evidence.”

One may ask why the Governmentof Georgia suddenly took an interest incyber security issues in 2008 while suchmotivation seemed almost nonexistentbefore. The reason for this was the Rus-sian-Georgian war of the same year,when the local websites came under anumber of serious cyber-attacks fromRussia, closing down numerous govern-mental and non-governmental webpag-es. Since then, many other similar cy-ber-attacks were launched against the

High Time to Care about Cyber SecurityHigh Time to Care about Cyber SecurityHigh Time to Care about Cyber SecurityHigh Time to Care about Cyber SecurityHigh Time to Care about Cyber Security

country. For instance, in 2011,CERT.GOV.GE* discovered a botnetcontrol server that had hackedema.gov.ge; presa.ge; psnews.ge; cei.geand several other Georgian websites.

If the local incidents don’t set a prop-er example of the importance of cybersecurity, we could look back at one of themost talked-about cyber-attacks of re-cent history – the 2014 Sony PicturesEntertainment (SPE) hack. Numerousaccusations have been made about theabove-mentioned crime, including the in-volvement of North Korea, former SPEemployees and even current workers ofthe company. Whichever the case, onething is for sure, the hack resulted in theleak of Sony employees’ personal infor-mation (pictures, emails and salary fig-ures), as well as copies of previouslyunreleased films, ending up costing thecorporation a whopping total financialloss of 14 billion Yen ($170 million).

While the rest of the world seems tobe at its peak of cyber-awareness, Geor-gia still has a long way to go. The factthat the Convention on Cybercrime was

ratified 11 years after its creation gives apretty clear picture of how far behindthe country is. However, the recent nu-merous projects regarding the challeng-es, including the regional workshop, Ale-ksandre Chikaidze’s discussions aboutcyber security with his Spanish coun-terpart earlier this year, and DEA’s in-creasing contribution to the fight againstcybercrime, gives much promise to acountry still dipping its toes tentativelyinto the digital era.

* “CERT.GOV.GE operates under DataExchange Agency of the Ministry of Jus-tice of Georgia and is responsible for han-dling critical incidents that occur withinGeorgian Governmental Networks and crit-ical infrastructure. CERT.GOV.GE startedits operations in January, 2011. Since theNational CERT does not operate in Geor-gia at this moment, CERT.GOV.GE han-dles all critical computer incidents whichoccur in the country.” (Source: DEA)

By Eka Karsaulidze

The Greek crisis, Ukraine and theexpected lifting of sanctions against Iranare just some of the topics that Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africaare discussing at the BRICS summit inUfa on July 8-10.

In total, Ufa City, Russia, will wit-ness the bringing together of heads ofstate and government of nearly two doz-en countries, as well as the heads of sev-en international organizations. The sum-mit is expected to involve the signing ofa number of important documents as wellas many bilateral meetings.

President of Russia Vladimir Putinhas already met with Indian Prime Min-ister, Narendra Modi, President of Bra-zil, Dilma Rousseff and President ofBelarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

It is significant that Belarus and anumber of countries outside the BRICSare very interested in this platform andsent their representatives to Ufa. It isquite understandable – it is an event withthe participation of leaders of the big-gest and fastest-growing emerging mar-kets.

Photo of the BRICS center, from www.bashinform.ru.

UfUfUfUfUfa Hosts BRICS and SCOa Hosts BRICS and SCOa Hosts BRICS and SCOa Hosts BRICS and SCOa Hosts BRICS and SCOXi Jinping talked about the interface ofthe Silk Road and the EEU. Gui Congy-ou, Deputy Director General of China’sForeign Ministry Department of Euro-pean and Central Asian Affairs, said thatChina is preparing for big investmentsin Russia. Oil and gas mastering in Rus-sia is one of the priorities for China.“Besides oil and gas, we are ready toinvest in the Russian economy, includ-ing in infrastructure development in so-cial projects fields, such as affordablehousing for people,” Congyou said.

Experts agree that the BRICS hasgradually been transformed by changingthe format of dialogue to a coordinationstructure, so becoming a platform forconcrete actions.

International security topics also willbe in the spotlight, in particular the sit-uation in Ukraine and the problem ofinternational terrorism.

Leaders of Shanghai CooperationOrganization (SCO) – Russia, China,Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan andUzbekistan – are to meet today, FridayJuly 10.

Keep up-to-date with the latest de-velopments on www.georgiatoday.ge

Energy efficiency and the economicsituation are among the top issues being

discussed at the BRICS summit withBRICS’ heads planning on talking about

expanding trade and investment ties.Vladimir Putin and Chinese President

JULY 10 - 161414141414 BUSINESS

By Meri Taliashvili

On July 6th, the fourth national contest of Gen-der Equality Awards was held in Georgia with Geor-gian President Giorgi Margvelashvili as a specialguest. The event was organized by the GenderEquality Council of the Parliament of Georgia withthe support of the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) and Government of Swedenin order to enhance Gender Equality in Georgia.

Before the winners were awarded, ShombiSharp, acting Head of the UNDP in Georgia award-ed President Margvelashvili with a special awardfor his contribution to gender equality issues.

The main award was granted by the GeorgianPresident himself to Nutsa Abramishvili fromSchuchmann Winery for the Best Woman Entre-preneur Award. The President went on to addressthe attending guests and in his speech mentionedGeorgia’s accomplishments towards the issue.“Georgia has gone a long way to ensuring genderequality in political, economic and social life. Andyet we are determined to build a society where ev-eryone will be able to enjoy their rights and exer-cise their choices without any discrimination,” saidPresident Margvelashvili.

Shombi Sharp clearly expressed the meaningand the importance of gender equality at the award

Fourth Annual Gender Equality

Awards Held in Tbilisiceremony: “Today we celebrate the fourth GenderEquality Awards in Georgia. We of the United Na-tions and United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) are joining forces with the Gender Equal-ity Council and Government of Sweden under thespecial participation of the President of Georgia tohighlight the importance of gender equality bothbecause gender equality is a human right, a wom-an’s right, but also because it is the foundation ofsocial, economic and democratic development inevery country worldwide. And the message is clear– gender equality in business and politics and alsoprotection for women and girls, means a more pros-perous Georgia for all,” Sharp said.

Manana Kobakhidze, Chair of the GenderEquality Council and the First Deputy Chairper-son of the Parliament of Georgia noted that despiteGeorgia’s achievements in gender equality it stillneeds more gender equality. “Georgia needs moregender equality in political life and in business. Iam sure we are moving in the right direction andwe will to achieve significant progress in this par-ticular area,” she said.

The Gender Equality Winners of 2015 are:Grand Award for Gender Equality – Kula;Woman Entrepreneur Award – Nutsa

Abramishvili (Schuchmann Winery);Gender Balance at the Executive Level - Per-

sonal Data Protection Bureau, Policy and Manage-ment Consultancy Group;

Best Innovative Gender Policy - GTS Elec-tronics;

Special Recognition for Gender AwarenessTrainings - Zurab Zhvania School of Public Ad-ministration;

Special Recognition for Female Empower-ment Programme – Geocell;

Special Recognition for Gender Budget Im-plementation - Ozurgeti City Hall;

Special Recognition for Supporting WomenEntrepreneurship - Cooperative Alvani;

Special Recognition for Supporting Womenin Leadership - Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili presents NutsaAbramishvili from Schuchmann Winery with the BestWoman Entrepreneur Award.

By Katie Ruth Davies

UNICEF and the Ministry of Educa-tion and Science presented a new pre-school program to media and educationspecialists this week which aims to giveyoung children the opportunity to ma-ture, in all developmental areas, anotheryear prior to starting school as well asto learn skills that will enable them toachieve success in the education sys-tem.

Early childhood education is of para-mount importance for every child as itlays the foundation for further growthand development. Investment in earlychildhood development improves notonly the health, learning and protectionof young children, but also economicgrowth in the country over the mediumand long term.

“International studies have shownthat a child who has preschool educa-tion is less likely to drop out from schooland three times more likely to end up inthe top 10 percent of the 14 year olds inschool achievement,” said SaschaGraumann, UNICEF Representative inGeorgia. “As adults, they have higherearnings and are less likely to dependon social assistance.

“Investment in Early Childhood De-velopment impacts not only the health,wellbeing and protection of young chil-dren but also contributes to the eco-nomic growth of the country and, ac-cording to some studies, it contributesto up to seven times a return on invest-ment in the long term.”

Children up to the age of six learn bestin environments which encourage playand nurture strong relationships betweenthe child and the educator and betweenthe school and the family, and which pro-vide an abundance of play and learningmaterial, as well as a mix of structuredand unstructured activities.

The main idea of the School Readi-ness Program is:

- to promote learning by play and in-dividual approach so that children’s in-dividual needs and interests are betterconsidered;

- to support the development ofsocio-emotional and critical thinkingskills that will help children to be pre-pared for the challenges of the school-ing year where the learning process ismore structured, considering obedienceto new types of rules;

- to realize the potential of everychild based on his/her development, age,interests and needs and to create equalopportunities for all children through-out Georgia.

The recent Public Defender’s OfficeMonitoring Report on Preschool Institu-tions (2015) identified systemic flaws inthe areas of quality, access and violationof children’s rights in the preschool edu-cation sector. Psychological violenceagainst children was observed in 70 per-cent of the monitored preschool institu-tions, while cases of physical violenceagainst children were revealed in 40 per-cent of institutions. Only 20 percent ofinstitutions had safe and adequate infra-structure and physical environment. Thereport also emphasizes the low qualifi-cation of the teaching workforce, whichis negatively reflected in their ability toprovide child-centered inclusive educa-tion. These major issues emphasize theimportance of introducing a legal frame-work that creates a stronger system toimprove the preschool education sector.

“The Law on Early and Pre-schoolEducation is in its draft form at presentand will create a legal framework for theSchool Readiness Program,” said EkaBeselia, Member of Parliament. TheLaw is expected to be submitted to Par-liament in the autumn session.

“Pre-school education is not currentlyfunctioning as it should,” Beselia la-mented. “Children need to be better pre-pared for school. There should be one

JULY 10 - 16 1515151515SOCIETY

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standard across the board. The report[Public Defender’s Office MonitoringReport on Preschool Institutions (2015)]is a hard pill to swallow but these are is-sues which are being dealt with, and dealtwith quickly.”

It is important that in addition to mu-nicipal monitoring, the relevant centralagencies monitor the implementation ofthe education, sanitation and hygiene,infrastructure, and nutrition standards.Classroom sizes should not exceed therange of 15-22 children respectively fordifferent age groups, and to this aim theTbilisi Mayor’s Office, represented atthe press conference by Deputy MayorIrakli Lekvinadze, announced theplanned opening of six new kindergar-tens in the Tbilisi Municipality byautumn in hopes that the many childrencurrently without placement opportuni-ties will at last be allowed access to thekindergarten system.

Tamar Sanikidze, Minister of Educa-tion and Science of Georgia highlightedthe voucher aspect of the new programwhereby those kindergartens unable toaccommodate children could allocate freeaccess vouchers to parents to register theirchildren in private kindergartens, fundedby the Ministry of Education and Science.It is not clear at this time, however, howexactly it will be decided who will re-ceive such vouchers.

“We are not a Ministry for experimen-tation with risks,” Minister Sanikidzesaid. “The necessary infrastructure is inplace to make this program work.”

She refuted the direct responsibilityof the Ministry, however, when ques-tioned on the readiness of regional kin-dergartens, some of whom, with over 40children in a class to two care-givers, areclearly not ready for the extra responsi-bility of a structured pre-school system.

“Since July last year UNICEF hasbeen supporting the Ministry of Educa-tion and Science [of Georgia] to developthe School Readiness curriculum basedon Early Learning and DevelopmentStandards, a School Readiness manualand activity book for educators, and train-ing modules to ensure teachers are readyto support the children,” said UNICEF’sGraumann. “It is important that munici-palities understand and introduce the pro-gram at the local level. For the success-ful implementation of the program over-all monitoring should stay with the Min-istry of Education and Science. All chil-

dren should have equal opportunities toenjoy a free and universal School Readi-ness Program that will help them to bet-ter succeed in school.”

A further issue of contention is thestatus of kindergarten caregivers, pointedout by Member of Parliament, GiaJorjoliani, who emphasized that the mini-mum remuneration of kindergarten teach-ers should equate to the minimum salaryof primary school teachers to reflect theirtraining. Minister Sanikidze confirmedthat there are plans in this direction.

This author, being the mother of threeyoung children, two of whom are cur-rently in the state kindergarten systemwith one the right age to be eligible forthe new pre-school program, has highhopes for the future, though low expec-tations of how soon the developmentswill realistically and effectively takeplace.

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11 July 2015A recent United Nations report

warns that the number of forcibly dis-placed people has risen to a record num-ber – almost 60 million at the end of2014. Among these, most women andadolescent girls face particular threatsas a result of the absence of health andother essential services that they need.

Even under normal conditions, re-productive health complications are aleading cause of death and illnessamong women of childbearing age. Inhumanitarian situations, an estimatedone in five women and adolescent girlsare likely to be pregnant. As skilled birthattendance and emergency obstetriccare often become unavailable, pregnantwomen’s and girls’ vulnerability todeath and injury is further exacerbated.

Women and adolescent girls alsoface much greater risk of abuse, sexualexploitation, violence and forced mar-riage during conflicts and natural disas-ters. In addition, many women who sur-vive a crisis become heads of house-hold, with the sole responsibility of car-ing for their children. They often haveto overcome immense obstacles to pro-vide health and care for children, thesick, the injured and the elderly, andbear the heaviest burden of relief andreconstruction. As a result, they mayneglect their own needs as they care forothers.

The complex emergencies we areresponding to include protracted con-flicts, made worse by poor or failedgovernance, the consequences of cli-mate change, and the engagement ofextremist groups claiming territory, re-sources and power.

That is why the theme of this WorldPopulation Day, “Vulnerable Popula-tions in Emergencies”, is intended tohighlight the special needs of womenand adolescent girls during conflicts andhumanitarian disasters.

One of the priorities of UNFPA, theUnited Nations Population Fund, is toempower and safeguard the well-beingof women, adolescent girls, and youngpeople and address their specific needsand concerns. We work closely with

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governments, the United Nations sys-tem, local partners and others on di-saster preparedness to ensure that re-productive health is integrated intoemergency responses.

UNFPA deploys hygiene kits, ob-stetric and contraceptive supplies,trained personnel and other support tovulnerable populations. It also worksto ensure the needs of women, ado-lescent girls and young people areserved through both an emergency andthe reconstruction phase. Our aim isto ensure that women’s and adolescentgirls’ right to sexual and reproductivehealth is protected and their safety isensured.

On this World Population Day, wecall on the international community toredouble efforts to protect the healthand rights of women and girls. Wemust enable women, adolescent girlsand young people to play their full rolein peace talks, peace building and re-covery, and to ensure that govern-ments comply with international lawand bring perpetrators of sexual vio-lence to justice. By prioritizing health,rights and the full participation ofwomen, adolescent girls and youngpeople in public life, we increase ourprospects for a more just, stable andpeaceful world.

On July 7, 2015, a conference Age-ing Policy in Georgia took place at theCinema Hall of the Parliament of Geor-gia, in Tbilisi.

The conference was designed to sup-port integration of ageing-related issuesinto public policies and programmes, inorder to advance the country’s sustain-able development.

The United Nations Economic Com-mission for Europe (UNECE) in col-laboration with the United NationsPopulation Fund (UNFPA) supportedthe development of the comprehensiveRoad Map for Mainstreaming Ageing inGeorgia, which represents a solidground and a significant step towards thedevelopment of the action plan on Age-ing.

Opening remarks at the conferencewere delivered by Mr. Dimitri Khun-dadze, Chairperson of the Healthcareand Social Issues Committee of the Par-liament of Georgia; Ms. Lela Bakradze,Assistant Representative, UNFPA Geor-gia Country Office; Ms. VitalijaGaucaite Wittich, Chief of the Popula-tion Unit, Statistical Division, UnitedNations Economic Commission for Eu-rope (UNECE); Mr. David Smith, Chiefof Party, USAID/Good Governance Ini-tiative in Georgia (GGI); and Ms. TamarChiburdanidze, Chairperson of the De-

mographic Renaissance Foundation ofGeorgia.

Participants of the conference –Members of the Health and Social Is-sues Committee of the Parliament andother MPs, leadership and the represen-tatives of relevant Ministries, academia,the United Nations Agencies and Inter-national and non-governmental organi-zations discussed the current situationregarding ageing in Georgia, identifiedneeds and discussed on-going, as wellas upcoming activities in Georgia.

The Framework of Actions for thefollow up to the Programme of Actionof the International Conference onPopulation and Development (ICPDPoA) Beyond 2014 and its recommen-dations were also presented to the audi-ence. At the end of the conference, the

participants developed and adopted theResolution, which provides recommen-dations on further steps for integratingageing-related issues into all the govern-ment policies and programmes.

The conference was organizedthrough the initiative of the Healthcareand Social Issues Committee of the Par-liament of Georgia in collaboration withthe United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) Country Office in Georgia,USAID/Good Governance Initiative inGeorgia, and the Demographic Renais-sance Foundation of Georgia.

After the conference a photographyexhibition Take Care of Time: “Ageingin Georgia seen through the eyes of itsolder citizens” opened in the QueenTamar Hall of the Parliament of Geor-gia.

Photo from pixabay.com

JULY 10 - 16 1717171717SOCIETY

By Meri Taliashvili

On July 4th, the US Embassy to-gether with the American Chamber ofCommerce in Georgia celebrated the239th anniversary of the signing of theDeclaration of Independence. A pic-nic party was organized during whichAmerican, Georgian and internationalfamilies gathered together to celebrateUS Independence Day. The party in-cluded a barbeque, entertainment ac-tivities, toys for children, live musicand games. The party ended with a fan-tastic display of fireworks. Half theproceeds raised from ticket sales wentto support the flood disaster relief.

Michael Cowgill, the Vice-Presidentof AmCham of Georgia, explained themeaning of July 4th.

“On behalf of the American Cham-ber of Commerce and the US Embassy,we would to welcome everybody to theFourth of July picnic. We hold it everyyear but this year there are two reasons.One, we want to get American andGeorgian and other nationalities to-gether to have fun and, second, we re-ally want to celebrate the AmericanIndependence. This is a symbol of afree world and for everyone whostruggles for freedom,” said Cowgill.

US ambassador Richard Norlandnoted the significance of the day andthanked Georgians for their well-wishes.

“This is a particularly significantday as it will be my last 4th of July asUS ambassador in Georgia- I’ll be leav-ing in about two weeks. The signifi-cance of the American Chamber ofCommerce being here and the work thatit does makes it a very strong part ofGeorgia’s economic development andUS-Georgia relations. We’re pleased tosee that each year the involvement ofthe American business community getsstronger, as does discussion about freetrade with Georgia. I want to thank allGeorgians who wished us well on our

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Independence Day and say: our Inde-pendence Day is Georgian’s Indepen-dence Day!” said Ambassador Norland.

Richard Norland was appointed asa US ambassador in 2012 and finishedhis ambassadorial tenure this summer.

American congress representativesalso joined the party and spoke aboutUS-Georgia relations. Republican Con-gressman Peter Roskam from Illinoisspoke about US-Georgia’s close eco-nomic relations and reaffirmed US sup-port for Georgia against Russian ag-gression. “It is great to be here withthe US Embassy, celebrating US Inde-pendence Day and celebrating Geor-gian democracy as well. The ties be-tween Georgia and the United States arevery, very close. We are part of a bi-partisan delegation here to honor Geor-gia and to make those ties deeper,deeper and deeper. The commercial re-lationship, the trade relationship, therelationship with the US, the Chamberof Commerce and American businessesare strong and should be stronger todraw the two economies closer to-gether. Georgia is at the front line offreedom and is pushing back hardagainst Russian aggression and we arehere to stand with Georgia and deepenthe ties with the United States.”

Democrat Congressman David Pricefrom North Carolina: “We are impressedwith many aspects of Georgian democ-racy. One of the most impressive is thevigorous parliament in which the par-ties are represented and in which vigor-ous debates take place,” said Price.

On July 4th, 1776, the Second Con-tinental Congress adopted the ThomasJefferson Declaration of Independenceand thirteen colonies declared a new,independent nation - the United Statesof America. Since that day the nationhas celebrated Independence Day an-nually on every 4th of July with carni-vals, fireworks, picnics, parades, con-certs, barbecues, fairs, baseball games,and political ceremonies.

AmCham's Michael Cowgill and Ambassador Richard Norland at the annual AmericanIndependence Day picnic, 2015.

CULTURE

By George Abashvili

Another year, another Tbilisi Open Airfestival: this time near the Tbilisi Sea withwarm weather accompanying many mas-sively popular bands and musicians suchas Placebo, Archive, Black Label Society,Beth Hart, The BearFox, and Zemfira,playing to a varied audience throughoutthe five-day festival, July 3-7.

This year’s Tbilisi Open Air was big-ger than ever with more than 70 musi-cians playing live and delivering on theirpromise to provide an incredible andunforgettable experience for the twentythousand strong crowd.

The Festival had two main stageson which artists played nonstop. Rockand Pop music shifted to Electronicwhen midnight came, and shifted backto Rock and Pop in the morning. Eachday had its own genre, from Pop Rockto Progressive Rock to Heavy Metalto Blues to Alternative Rock. Stickingwith Open Air tradition, aside from thepopular bands, new musicians werewelcomed to try and pave their wayto fame as “Newcomers.” This year itwas particularly interesting to seesome new bands choose to play sup-posedly “dead” Punk music- verypopular back in the 70s and then againin the late 1990s and early 2000s with“Pop Punk” when bands such as “TheClash” and “Sex Pistols” revolution-

The BearFox - Live at Tbilisi Open Air 2015.

Tbilisi Open AirTbilisi Open AirTbilisi Open AirTbilisi Open AirTbilisi Open Air

ized the music industry. Perhaps thenext “The Clash” was playing on thestage of this year’s Tbilisi Open Air-we saw it first!

“Placebo” unsurprisingly earned themost attention this year, playing both oldand new compositions and deliveringwith energy. As always, the band tookspecial care of its listeners and askedthem to “look after your brothers andsisters around you, give each other spaceand let each other breath. Let’s enjoy thisevening without any casualties!” Theorganizers noted on facebook that ap-parently “Placebo” will be donating halfof their fee from the festival to thepeople affected by the flood of 13 June.

Another internationally famous band,“Archive,” said that they were pleasantly

shocked by the audience and their ex-citement and expressed their wish toplay in Tbilisi again soon.

The Tbilisi Open Air festival hasbeen around since 2009. It has a broadappeal, entertaining everyone fromhipsters to goths, all there to break freefrom everyday life. After all, music doesbreak us free, just as the Open Air orga-nizers told the audience: “This year’sOpen Air confirmed that the festival isgoing to get bigger and bigger everyyear. It was one of the best five days andthank you all for contributing and beingso beautiful. Thank you very much andwe promise you that we won’t stopgrowing and bringing you more beauti-ful music. We love you! Remember,music breaks you free!”

OP-ED

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By Zaza Jgharkava

Last week the central streets of Tbilisiwere decorated with national flags ofTurkmenistan and Georgia as the capitalof Georgia hosted a high-ranking delega-tion from the Central Asian state. Simi-lar to the visit of Vladimer Lukashenko,President of Belarus, the visit of Presi-dent Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow wasnot announced in advance, stirring specu-lation that some kind of sensational dec-laration was to be made. Alas, it was notto be.

The declaration summarizing thevisit, which was signed at the President’sAvlabari residence, clearly showed thatGeorgia and Turkmenistan have a longway to go in their cooperation. However,it was clearly felt that the officialAshgabat delegation led by PresidentBerdimuhamedow started a new energydialogue. At the concluding press con-ference, President Berdimuhamedow’sresponses indicated that gas, which goesto the west via Russia, might soonchange route and go via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Back in the 1990s,Georgia’s second president EduardShevardnadze tried to convince thenTurkmen President Saparmurat Niyazovof the benefits of transiting gas via Geor-gia, avoiding Russia. AlthoughShevardnadze toiled to convince hisTurkmen counterpart to give up themulti-million Russian deal. However, it

was obvious that operating the new en-ergy corridor was much more beneficialfor Turkmenistan. Back then, PresidentBerdimuhamedow’s predecessor re-fused to worsen relations with Russia.

In the recent visit, President Ber-dimuhamedow had a detailed discussionabout the gas pipeline with Prime Min-ister Irakli Garibashvili. However, afterthe end of the meeting, neither PrimeMinister Garibashvili nor PresidentBerdimuhamedow spoke about the is-sue, offering only general phrases,which touched upon modernization oftransit corridors. However, in the jointdeclaration, for the first time it was writ-ten that citizens of Turkmenistan andGeorgia are “brother nations” and thatdeepening relations between theirpeoples is also of strategic importance.Moreover, it was written in the declara-tion that Georgia will provide full sup-port to Turkmenistan in the transit cor-ridor issue. Turkmenistan meanwhilepromised that during voting at theUnited Nations, it will support the re-turn of Georgian IDPs to Abkhazia andSouth Ossetia.

After signing the declaration, Presi-dent Berdimuhamedow brought flowersto the memorial of those who died fight-ing for territorial integrity. This gestureclearly implied a diminishing harmonybetween Ashgabat and Moscow and italso suggested that Georgian-Turkmenrelations, which were once quite tense

because of consumed gas debts, are im-proving.

In only two years, the debt of con-sumed gas exceeded $400 million.Georgian thermo electric power stationsused to work fully on Turkmen gas,which increased the amount of debt evenmore. Of the debt accumulated in 1991-1993, Turkmenistan wrote off $50 mil-lion in 1999 and out of the remaining$350 million President Niyazov agreedto write off only part, which was usedto repair the Turkmen Su-25 at theTbilisi Aviation Factory.

Since 1999, the debt to Turkmenistanhas been gradually paid back throughrepairing Turkmenistan’s aircraft atTbilaviamsheni and by sending sugarand other Georgian products toTurkmenistan. The debt decreased to$193 million and during the rule ofPresident Saakashvili, in 2006, it wasfully covered. The epoch of Turkmengas, which was provided to Georgia bythe Russian company “Itera”, is nowover and the political elite appeared tohave forgotten Turkmenistan altogether.

However, assessing the unexpectedrecent visit of Turkmenistan’s presidentto Georgia, all observers came to the con-clusion that President Berdimu-hamedow’s visit was not merely a sym-bolic gesture and that relations betweenthe two post-Soviet states may well be intransit towards a new energy relationship,one that would seriously irk Russia.

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Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow met his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili.

IOSEB GRISHASHVILI TBILISIHISTORY MUSEUM - KARVASLAAddress: 8 Sioni St.Telephone: 2 98 22 81

SERGO PARAJANOVI – “21STCENTURY DREAM”

IOSEB GRISHASHVILI TBILISIHISTORY MUSEUM - KARVASLAAddress: 8 Sioni St.Telephone: 2 98 22 81

SERGO PARAJANOVI - 21STCENTURY DREAM”The exhibition is dedicated to SergoParajanovi’s art which was born dueto the multicultural traditions ofTbilisi. The project aims to exposethe innovative prospect of the diverseand creative inheritance of SergoParajanov in order to expandinternational artistic dialogue betweenGeorgian and Ukrainian artists.

THE NATIONAL GALLERYAddress: 11 Rustaveli Ave.www.museum.ge

June 17- July 17THE EXHIBITION “THECAUCASUS FRONT THROUGHNINO JORJADZE’S CAMERALENS” IS DEDICATED TO THE100TH ANNIVERSARY OF WWI.Nino Jorjadze was the first Georgianwoman photographer who createdphoto series about WWI that reflect adiverse and thematically rich history.For the first time at the expositionvisitors will have the chance to seeNino Jorjadze’s photos, letters,diaries, documents and personal itemsfrom the Caucasus Front in 1914-1918. Also on display are photosfrom the family archives, which wererestored by the Georgian NationalMuseum’s photo-paper conservationlaboratory.

PIROSMANI’S 150THThe National Gallery is hosting

JULY 10 - 16 1919191919CULTURE

MOVEMENT THEATREAddress: 182, Aghmashenebeli Ave.,Mushthaid parkTelephone: 599 555 260

July 10, 11, 12IGI (HE)Jemal KarchkhadzeDirected by Kakha BakuradzeComposer: Sandro NikoladzeChoreographers: Giorgi Gongadze andLasha RobakidzeScenography: Anuka MurvanidzeDolls: Irakli KhoshtariaStart time: 20:30Ticket price: From15 Lari

AMIRANI CINEMAAddress: 36 Kostava St.Telephone: 299 99 55www.kinoafisha.ge

July 10-16INSIDE OUTDirected by Pete Docter,Ronaldo Del CarmenCast: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del CarmenGenre: Animation, Comedy, DramaLanguage: EnglishStart time: 17:30Ticket price: 9.50 – 10.50 Lari

MINIONS 3DDirected by Colin TrevorrowCast: Chris Pratt, Bryce DallasHoward, Ty SimpkinsGenre: Action, Adventure, Sci-FiLanguage: EnglishStart time: 19:50Language: RussianStart time: 12:30, 14:40, 17:20,19:40, 22:00Ticket price: 7.50 – 12.50 Lari

TERMINATOR GENESISDirected by Alan TaylorCast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, JasonClarke, Emilia ClarkeGenre: Action, Adventure, Sci-FiLanguage: RussianStart time: 16:30, 19:40, 22:30Ticket price: 9:50 – 12.50 Lari

MAGIC MIKE XXLDirected by Gregory JacobsCast: Channing Tatum, JoeManganiello, Matt BomerGenre: Comedy, Drama, MusicLanguage: RussianStart time: 12:00Ticket price: 7:50 – 8.50 Lari

RUSTAVELI CINEMAAddress: 5 Rustaveli Ave.Telephone: 255 50 00www.kinoafisha.ge

JURASSIC WORLDDirected by Colin TrevorrowCast: Chris Pratt, Bryce DallasHoward, Ty SimpkinsGenre: Action, Adventure, Sci-FiLanguage: RussianStart time: 16:00, 19:30Ticket price: 8.50 – 10.50 Lari

POLTERGEISTDirected by Gil KenanCast: Sam Rockwell, RosemarieDeWitt, Kennedi ClementsGenre: Horror, ThrillerLanguage: RussianStart time: 22:30Ticket price: 11.50 – 12.50 Lari

LOST IN KARASTANDirected by Ben HopkinsCast: Matthew Macfadyen, MyAnnaBuring, Noah TaylorGenre: ComedyLanguage: RussianStart time: 16:00Ticket price: 9.50 – 10.50 Lari

MINIONS 3D(Info Above)Language: RussianStart time: 12:00, 14:20, 17:00,20:00, 22:15Ticket price: 7.50 – 12.50 Lari

TERMINATOR GENESIS(Info Above)Language: RussianStart time: 14:20, 17:05, 19:50, 22:40Ticket price: 8:50 – 12.50 Lari

MAGIC MIKE XXL(Info Above)Language: RussianStart time: 11:45Ticket price: 7:50 – 8.50 Lari

MUSEUM OF SOVIETOCCUPATION

Address: 1 Rustaveli ave.Telephone: 2 99 80 22

The exhibition is dedicated to the his-tory of the anti-occupational, national-liberation movement of Georgia and tothe victims of the Soviet political repres-sion throughout this period.

SIMON JANASHIA MUSEUMOF GEORGIA

Address: 3 Rustaveli Ave.Telephone: 2 99 80 22

"ARCHAEOLOGICAL TREASURE"

June 27 – October 31“GEORGIANS IN WORLD WARII” IS AN EXHIBITIONDEDICATED TO THE 70THANNIVERSARY OF THE VICTORYOVER FASCISM.The exposition will showcase at least250 little-known items from thecollections of the Georgian NationalMuseum, including the private lettersof Georgian combatants, certificates,greeting cards, medals, orders, andweaponry such as guns, pistols,machine-guns, assault rifles, etc. madein the USSR and Nazi Germany.One of the most distinguishedartifacts are a greeting letter fromSimon Chikovani addressed toGeneral-colonel KonstantineLeselidze, the orders of KonstantineLeselidze, General Janjgava’s medal ofhonor, uniforms of Georgian generalsand officers, and the unique flags ofGeorgian partisans who were fightingin France and Italy.Visitors will have a chance to see theprivate pipe of Joseph Stalin and anivory vase specially made for his 50thbirthday.

THEATRE

WHAT'S ON IN TBILISI

pictures of David Kakabadze (1889-1952) and Lado Gudiashvili (1896-1980) together with sculptures ofIakob Nikoladze (1876-1951) andphotographs from the NationalArchives of Georgia and IakobNikoladze House-Museum depictingthe sculptor’s life and creative work.

GAMREKELI GALLERYAddress: 14 Ingorokva St.

July 2-15OLEG TIMCHENKO’S SOLOEXHIBITION CULMINATION

ARTAREAAddress: 10 Dodo Abashidze st.

July 10LIVE@TWILIGHTPRESENTS: MISHO URUSHADZEFEAT. AMIKO / MOKU T (LIVE)Start time: 21:00

MTKVARZE

July 10RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMYPRESENTSDASHA RUSH, A.TABUKASHVILI,ZURKIN, ZITTOMain Room:Dasha Rush (DJ Set) / FullpandaRecords, Berlin, DEA. TabukashviliVisuals by Giorgi MozgovoiSmall Room:ZurkinZITTOStart time: 21:00Ticket price: 10 Lari

MUSHTAIDI PARKAddress: 182 Agmashenebeli ave.Telephone: 599 01 55 67

July 15VALERIAN SHIUKASHVILICONCERT TO SUPPORTCHILDREN WITH CANCERStart time: 20:30

CINEMA

MUSEUM

GALLERY

MUSIC

By Maka Lomadze

The Georgian National Gallery ishosting an exhibition of female amateurphotographer Nino Jorjadze, dedicatedto the centenary of the First World War.For the first time, the residents of Tbilisiwill see this unique material, includingphotos, diaries and other documentsfrom the family archives, restored bythe Georgian National Museum. Thebook “WWI in the Eyes of a GeorgianWoman” has also published.

The exhibition displays significantevents during WWI, military actions,historical persons and different ethno-graphic groups. Jorjadze had a westerneducation and became a member of theInternational Red Cross as soon as WWIbroke out. Thus, Nino, as young aristo-crat woman, became a thorough docu-

Photo Exhibition DePhoto Exhibition DePhoto Exhibition DePhoto Exhibition DePhoto Exhibition Depicts picts picts picts picts WW1 WW1 WW1 WW1 WW1 TTTTThrhrhrhrhrough Georough Georough Georough Georough Georgian Eygian Eygian Eygian Eygian Eyeseseseses

mentarian of the brutal times of the Cau-casian front, depicting battles ofSarikamish, Kars, Begliahet, Bitlis,Karakamis, Nazik and Anis-Kala. Shecan be perceived as a creative personand a photo historian who played a piv-otal role in the development of Georgianphotography.

“The archive displays the history ofa Georgian military aristocrat who wason military service in the Russian Em-pire and creates a photo chronicle of theCaucasian front during the First WorldWar that is important on historical andethnographic, social and cultural grounds.Employees of the Dmitry Ermakovphoto archive department of the Geor-gian National Museum carried out con-servation work on the photo collection.Well-known Georgian writer AkaMorchiladze worked on the Georgian

translation of the diaries written in Rus-sian. It is gratifying that this uniquearchive has gained interest abroad andthe exhibition already has been invitedto Switzerland,” Davit Lortkipanidze,Director General of the Georgian Na-tional Museum stated.

“I have always wanted to realize thisproject, as Nino Jorjadze was a closerelative of my husband. She was singleand lived with my mother-in-law. I amhappy that at last, as a dedication to thecentenary of WWI, the exhibition isopen,” Tamar Lortkipanidze, author ofthe project told Georgia Today.

The extracts from Nino’s diaries areparticularly enlightening including thisexample: “11 November. My windowoverlooks the mortuary which bringsmelancholy. Every day the abandoned,lonely soldiers are brought. That’s hid-eous. There are 25 unburied dead bodiesin the mortuary. 12 of them have beenlying there for two weeks now. No grave-diggers, not enough people. This is noth-ing else but barbarism not being able topay a last tribute to the deceased.”

Jorjadze writes that she does notapprove of quitting the front even in adangerous situation, as she thinks thatthe sisters should be everywhere wherethey are needed. She also scolds thosewho do not look after the diseased andonly attend to the wounded, as if thelatter were “a tasty piece of cake”.

Jorjadze is full of protest. She de-picts, when, at last, the Russians decideto feed the wounded Turks. “They aregiven porridge with lard. It’s really bar-baric. First of all, their stomachs cannotdigest the lard and everybody is downwith dysentery and then how can you

feed prisoners with the food that is for-bidden by their religion?”

In another excerpt, she attacks thebureaucracy interfering with her work.“10 January. We do not change the bedsheets for the wounded unless they arebadly torn or too filthy. We were cadg-ing for shirts for a long time, but did notget any. And here one of the functionar-ies said: ‘I do have 1000 shirts, but Idon’t know under which article they fall’.Paper kills all that’s alive, doesn’t allowone to do the job.”

The amateur photographer also ex-hibited a sense of humor, even amid suchdepressing and frustrating times: “Gen-

eral B. arrived. The buildings are beingswept, the roads sanded. Now the meet-ings will start again for the serious, im-portant cause of rendering the aid topatients; these meetings are like comicoperas. They just act with words. Peopleare dying like flies. There are often casesof mental derangement.”

The funds raised from the sale of thebooks will be entirely donated to a foun-dation for those who suffered from therecent Tbilisi flood. The supporters ofthe project are the Ministry of Cultureand Monuments’ Protection and theSwiss Agency for Development andCooperation.

Tony Hanmer runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now withover 1000 members, atwww.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/ .He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

ered by having a dead body in the car; itwas inside the coffin anyway, with thelid on. It was just the emotional outpour-ing which was hard. Single, too young inhis early fifties, and his passing com-pletely unnecessary. I likely have the lastphotos taken of him, as he and his nephewhad helped plough our potato field byoxen in mid-spring, with me document-ing. Now I know a little of how the peoplefeel who accompany the Olympic Flameas it travels from Greece to wherever inthe world every two years: or do I?

We stopped several times on the way,as friends and relatives heard the newsand wanted to pay respects. The firststop was about halfway up, someonewaiting outside a roadside cafe. Then asmall car, which had come down about40 km just to meet us, its driver and pas-sengers men, all sobbing. A minivan fullof the village’s men was next, a bit closerto home. Each time we stopped, the menexited, brief toasts were made, the sis-

JULY 10 - 16 2121212121SOCIETY

By Tony Hanmer

(I’ll have more to write soon follow-ing from last week’s mountain herdingarticle, which is now what you might calla Developing Story. For now, this inter-lude.)

This place, these people, seem steepedin death, I thought yet again when I heardthe news. I was in warm Zugdidi and hadjust finished some shopping for the lat-est phase of house renovation and for theshop. This time it was going to be awk-ward as well as tragic: the dead was mydriver’s brother, in hospital not far away,the cause a non-life-threatening medicalissue which he had simply ignored andkept quiet about until the then necessaryoperation was too late. My copious shopstock-up purchases and I would have totravel back up with the corpse and thewailing.

As I look back over the numerous fu-nerals and other death rituals in which ithas been my dubious but necessary privi-lege to partake as a villager in Svaneti, aform emerges. It’s the shape of a neck-lace, but not one of precious stones; morelike lumps of coal strung on barbed wire;and it’s nearly complete. I have been atalmost every part, now including the pro-cession of the body from hospital tohome, as well as too many pre- and post-funeral events and the great sad day it-

HearHearHearHearHearse bse bse bse bse by Candlelight:y Candlelight:y Candlelight:y Candlelight:y Candlelight: Zugdidi-Etseri Zugdidi-Etseri Zugdidi-Etseri Zugdidi-Etseri Zugdidi-Etseri

self. The only thing I lack to finish mygrisly collection will be attending some-one as they actually die. I suppose I canwait for this.

There is a lot more to Svaneti, butdeath is one of its seemingly morepresent realities, alongside glorious land-scape beauty and the differences broughtby every season, the towers and treasures,the lovely people. Lovely until they die,and then they become human-parodyinghusks, same as everyone else.

The first mini-feast today was wherethe Svaneti drivers from Zugdidi gather,near the “Svan Tower”: wine, bread andtinned fish on a thin sheet of plywood.

Then we were off, my bags and boxessurreally encircling the coffin in the backof the minivan. The sister, sister-in-lawand her young daughter (mercifullysleeping, wrung out by the day’s emo-tions) sat right beside the coffin, whilethe brother drove, he and his wife weep-ing (she all the more as he still had toconcentrate on his task). Another unspeci-fied relative sat next to me in the front.He held a long fat Orthodox candle, put-ting it into a plastic cup when the hot waxgot to be enough on his hands.

The candle stayed lit the whole way;something to do with the departed’s en-try into heaven, I think. I wasn’t both-

ter-in-law poured out her anguish in aloud voice.

Near the dead man’s home, they tookhis coffin out to carry it to his poor wait-ing elderly mother by hand. His teenagenephew drove me and my goods home,and we were done for the day. Now thebody will be on display (refrigerated) ina room filled with wailing women, untilfuneral day, just under a week from now.Everyone who comes will be able to eatand drink to the memory of the departed.

The biggest feast will be on the dayof the funeral, once the procession hascarried the coffin to the local hamlet’scemetery and buried it. Then, every Sat-urday until the ormotsi (40 days fromdeath feast), another feast. Ormotsi, andthen tslistavi, a year after death, to wrapit up formally. All contributed to finan-cially by everyone who takes part (hope-fully 100%), and labor-wise the same. Doyou see where my feeling comes from,that Svaneti is focused on death?

OKFM 104.7 has entered the Geor-gian radio space with a much anticipatedboom, and is set to be on air 24/7 provid-ing listeners with tasteful music and asatisfying mix of interesting and enter-taining news stories. The radio openedon July 8th. According to GeorgeSharashidze, the founder of RadioOKFM, the information aired through itwill be mainly based on celebrity news.

“We hope that OKFM will becomea very popular radio station for Geor-gian listeners. The radio is contempo-rary in its format and so its listeners arealso expected to be contemporary. Suchan audience offers very attractive andinteresting marketing potential for many

TTTTTune in to OKFM!une in to OKFM!une in to OKFM!une in to OKFM!une in to OKFM!

organizations and advertisers,” said Sha-rashidze.

The editors at OK! Magazine, onceagain aiming to grab readers’ interest,have created a website for the magazineon which loyal readers will be able toget full information.

Nino Ioseliani, Editor-in-Chief ofOK! Magazine took some time out fromthe opening ceremony, which was at-tended by a number of Georgian celeb-rities and public figures, to talk to Geor-gia Today: “Today, we are celebratingthe radio OKFM’s opening. We havehigh hopes that the radio will be enjoy-able for listeners and we’re confident itwill become a favorite,” she said.

WWWWWaste Manaaste Manaaste Manaaste Manaaste Managggggement,ement,ement,ement,ement, Ne Ne Ne Ne New Lifw Lifw Lifw Lifw LifestyleestyleestyleestyleestyleForty families in the Saguramo settle-

ment for internally displaced people arelearning how to manage and processsolid waste.

Three separation bins have been in-stalled in the village to sort the house-hold waste and prepare it for processing.The residents also receive assistance incomposting organic waste and produc-ing fertilizers for their agriculture plots.

Through the practical local work thatbenefits small communities, the initia-tive promotes the European model ofwaste management and contributes toenhancing environmental governance inGeorgia.

The project is supported by the Eu-ropean Union, United Nations Develop-ment Programme (UNDP) and GEFSmall Grants Programme (SGP) inGeorgia, in cooperation with the Re-gional Development and Social Support

Centre and Coop Georgia.Andreja Skerl, Policy Officer of the

European Commission; Nino Antadze ofUNDP in Georgia; and representativesof the Ministry of Environment andNatural Resources of Georgia, visitedthe Saguramo settlement on 3 July. Theymet with the local residents and saw theprogress of the waste managementproject.

Radio OKFM interviewing Georgian celebrity Kristi Kipshidze.

JULY 10 - 16 2323232323SPORTS

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column,and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

See answers in the next issue

www.sudoku.comAnswers to previous puzzles

By Alastair Watt

Football and Tbilisi city authoritiesare confident that the long-delayed andcalamity-plagued sale of coveted tick-ets for the UEFA Super Cup will passpeacefully after putting in place numer-ous security measures.

Following a short briefing at theGeorgian Football Federation HQ onJuly 7, it was announced that 22,000tickets for the Super Cup match to beplayed between Barcelona and Sevillaon August 11, will go on sale from 9amon Sunday 12 July at Mikheil MeskhiStadium.

A video was then released onYoutube on July 9 by the Georgian Foot-ball Federation (GFF) providing a vir-tual reality run through of how ticketsales will operate. The process appearswell-organized and relatively profes-sional, compared to the ill-fated onlinesales which caused the organizers muchembarrassment.

When the online sale was attempted,well over 100,000 residents of Georgiawere virtually queuing for the mostsought-after tickets perhaps in thecountry’s history. Only a very fortunatefew do not remain ticketless and thedesire to see the current Barcelona side,arguably the club’s greatest ever en-semble, has not dissipated. If anything,it has intensified.

With nowhere in Georgia more thana day’s journey from Tbilisi, there is noreason why this vast number of willingticket-buyers will not be replicated onSunday. Indeed, the (largely negative)publicity the Super Cup has been get-ting could in fact increase the numberof those willing to queue. Moreover, forolder generations, the online sale mayhave been unattractive or inaccessible.The physical sale opens the door to any-one with an ID card.

When the announcement was madethe previous week that tickets would besold physically, many predicted chaosat the ticket booths.

Georgian football supporter AndroAtoev, now living in Poland, was notconvinced that the authorities had giventhe idea their full consideration.

“I am not sure they have had a properlook at this. This will not be fun towatch. In Georgia a line of 5 in a gro-cery store usually ends with a mild ar-gument. And that is a grocery storewhere you are guaranteed to get yourproduct when your turn comes. Imag-ine thousands of angry people in the oneplace. Bad idea,” said Atoev, whose

AAAAAuthorities Bruthorities Bruthorities Bruthorities Bruthorities Braced faced faced faced faced fororororor

Super Cup Super Cup Super Cup Super Cup Super Cup TicTicTicTicTickkkkket Scret Scret Scret Scret Scrambambambambamblelelelele

voice of concern was far from alone.Nevertheless, such fears appear to

have been heeded by GFF, the city au-thorities and the Ministry of InternalAffairs as the ticket sales are to beheavily policed. Queuing fans, accord-ing to the aforementioned instructionalvideo, will be penned in Vake Parkwhich is roughly adjacent to the Mikheil

Meskhi Stadium.Stewards will then let through people

fifty at a time, to walk up the steps toChavchavadze Avenue where they willbe escorted along the 300 meter walk tothe stadium ticket booths.

Everyone will need to present theiridentification card to a steward beforeproceeding to the ticket booths where amaximum of four tickets will be sold perperson. It is likely that most of thosequeuing will buy the maximum amount.

If they all do so, then that will be ex-actly 5,500 happy customers, with thecount of disappointed customers sur-passing that several-fold.

In GFF’s advisory video, which de-picts a blissfully calm scene unlikely tobe replicated on Sunday, it reassuresqueuing fans that their safety will beprotected by the Ministry of Internal

Affairs. They also reveal that the queu-ing area will be fitted with bio-toiletsand water stations to keep people hy-drated. In addition, the emergency ser-vices and first aid crews will be on hand.The implication is clear – the authori-ties expect unrest.

In the virtual serenity of the video,they seem to have reached a practicalsolution. However, there are two keyvariables which will determine howpeacefully this will pass.

online from June 22, however exclusiveticket sellers biletebi.ge’s website wasquickly overwhelmed and crashed afterselling less than 100 tickets.

UEFA then agreed to divide the salein two, with one allocation reserved forGeorgian residents and the other for in-ternational sales.

However, a second attempt bybiletebi.ge to sell tickets on June 30proved largely unsuccessful with fewerthan 2,000 tickets sold in 24 hours. Thefollowing day, the international sale didtake place and was apparently success-ful, with a further 4,300 tickets sold.

The management of ticket sales hasbeen widely criticized by fans both in-side and outside of Georgia andbiletebi.ge has announced that it expectsto be on the receiving end of UEFA pun-ishment for its failure to fulfill its ticketselling assignment, for which it had beengranted a reported $45,000.

Biletebi.ge announced via Facebookon July 8 that it had begun a process ofrefunding hundreds of customers whohad paid for tickets but not receivedthem. The responses on the page weretypically ferocious with some disap-pointed customers alleging corruptionand tickets being sold covertly, an ac-cusation the company swiftly denied.

First, when will people start queu-ing? Although the sales begin at 9am onSunday, people are likely to be queuinglong before that. Overnight campingcannot be ruled out, and when wordspreads of early queue-goers, it may notbe long before thousands follow suit.Will police disperse campers and early-comers? The earlier this starts, the moredifficult it will be to control.

Second, how many people will bravethe queue? This is very difficult to pre-dict but, clearly, the number of peoplequeuing will far exceed the number oftickets available. There is a guaranteeof disappointment and how people re-act when the “sold out” signs go up,particularly if they have been queuingin the summer heat for many hours, willbe important. Promises will have beenmade to sons, daughters, brothers, fa-thers, mothers, uncles, cousins, wives,girlfriends etc. Going home empty-handed will not be worth contemplat-ing for some.

But, breaking the news that LionelMessi, Neymar, Andres Iniesta, LuisSuarez and co. will be playing in yourcity, but you won’t be going, is a speechthat several thousand people need to bepreparing.

Initially, 30,000 tickets were to be sold

The management of ticket sales has been widelycriticized by fans both inside and outside of Georgiaand biletebi.ge has announced that it expects to beon the receiving end of UEFA punishment for itsfailure to fulfill its ticket selling assignment, forwhich it had been granted a reported $45,000.

GENERAL MANAGER - George Sharashidze

BUSINESS MANAGER - Iva Merabishvili

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF - Katie Ruth DaviesCOPY EDITOR - Alastair WattJOURNALISTS: Zviad Adzinbaia, Joseph Alexander Smith, Joseph Larsen, Katie Ruth Davies, Beqa Kirtava,Alastair Watt, Tony Hanmer, Eka Karsaulidze, Baia Dzaginadze, Zaza Jgharkava, Meri Taliashvili, Teona Surmava,Ana Lomtadze, Maka Bibilashvili, Nino Melikishvili, Nina Ioseliani, Tatia Megeneishvili, Karen Tovmasyan, Nino Gegidze,Dimitri Dolaberidze, Nino Japarashvili, Maka Lomadze, Tamar Svanidze, George Abashvili, David Lolishvili.PHOTOGRAPHER: Zviad NikolaishviliTECHNICAL SUPPORT: Misha MchedlishviliCIRCULATION MANAGERS: David Kerdikashvili, David Djandjgava

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