2016-11-25
Economic Development Plan of the Four Point Agenda of the Government of Georgia, national security, measures to be implemented towards the occupied territories, development of democratic institutions of the country and approximation with the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) were the key topics raised by Mr. Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Acting Prime Minister of Georgia during his meeting with the Parliamentary Minority.
Mr. Kvirikashvili congratulated the Members of Parliament (MPs) of the United National Movement (UNM) with their election to the legislature and expressed hopes for the cooperation with them to be productive for creating a better future of the country. Acting Prime Minister also hopes that cooperation will be constructive and aimed at the better treatment of specific issues.
According to Mr. Kvirikashvili, Four Point Plan of the Government includes four key directions, which will lead to a fundamental breakthrough for the development of the country.
In his opinion, education is announced as top priority of the Government in terms of the sequence of initiatives and resource allocation. It is planned to reform both general and higher education systems, along with the promotion of tertiary education. Amendments to the legislation are anticipated towards this end so that degree education may also be pursued after the graduating the tertiary colleges. More attention will be paid to the professions in high demand while setting the tone in higher education.
"It does not apply to fundamental sciences as it is hard to measure them in numbers. It only applies to Economics, which is clearly in high demand. Current education system does not meet the needs and system is working towards generating the unemployed" noted Mr. Kvirikashvili.
On the grounds of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, a dual education model will be replicated from Germany so that both public and private sectors share the cost of developing the skills and qualifications of the labor force.
In the opinion of Giorgi Kvirikashvili, legislative reforms have been implemented for the acceleration of economic growth in the country. They are aimed at reducing the tax burden on corporate taxpayers. According to his explanations, reinvested profits will no longer be taxed from 1st January 2017 due to unfavorable conditions experienced by the region, for the facilitation of investments and mobilization of domestic resources.
Acting Prime Minister also spoke about the mechanisms designed to incentivize the business start-ups and noted that Start Up Financing Fund has been established for the first time to allocate funding for innovations and high-technology based new businesses by the engagement of foreign celebrity experts. By his explanations this initiative is aimed at promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country so that the youth gets eagerly engaged in business and creates jobs.
Economic Reform Agenda also covers the Pension System Reform, which will be based on the mandatory contributions and will result in the capital market reform to develop it in the most appropriate manner. Also, significant reforms are planned in public administration of the country.
Third segment of the reforms covers the governance system initiatives, which implies the service-oriented governance and engagement under the concept of Inclusive Governance.
Business House is a project initiative, which is progressing well to provide all the public services under the one-stop-shop principle to all the legal entities. In the opinion of Giorgi Kvirikashvili, it will be practically the second phase of the House of Justice project initiative, which currently offers over 400 services to physical entities. According to Mr. Kvirikashvili, Business House will synchronize the services within the property management, energy, Partnership Fund, natural resource management and many other public institutions to substantially improve the services rendered to the private sector.
Inclusive Governance implies the establishment of specialized formats to make the decision-making process transparent and invite the engagement. Acting Prime Minister referred to the Investors Council to evidence the initiative.
Fourth direction of the reforms is the Spatial Planning and development of infrastructure, thus advancing the main network of roads and touristic destinations. According to Giorgi Kvirikashvili, development will follow the Master Plan, rather than sporadic individual initiatives. In his opinion, it is a role model of sustainable development, which is required by the country. This segment of reforms implies the completion of transit highways of the country within the coming four years to fully capitalize on the transport potential of the country.
"It envisages completion of the first phase of a Deep Sea Port in Anaklia, modernization of the railway transport system and full commissioning of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad, which will be launched presumably in 2017" added Mr. Kvirikashvili.
Acting Prime Minister also spoke about the priorities in foreign policy of the country. According to him, consistent advancement towards approximation with EU standards is the top priority of the country, while full integration to NATO is an irreversible craving of the country. As noted by Mr. Kvirikashvili, Georgia has all the tools to be used to the fullest extent.
Acting Prime Minister also expressed hopes for the successful completion of the EU visa-liberalization process in the nearest future.
"Unfortunately, this process has been delayed on the grounds of the bureaucratic procedures witnessed at EU institutions, however I greatly hope that Georgia will reach the truly deserved goal in the nearest future" added Mr. Kvirikashvili.
In the opinion of the Acting Prime Minister, Georgia continues to pursue its kind neighborhood policy with cross-border states - Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia, while pragmatic policy is followed with Russia.
"We continue to pursue the pragmatic policy with Russia, which has been practiced so far and aimed at mitigating the escalation, though it may never anyhow compromise the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia. We will be adamant on the problems relating to the occupied territories, protection of human rights at such occupied territories and we will be very vocal at every international platform, which is made available to Georgia to keep this issue high in the agenda. We will intensify work towards the non-recognition policy and other initiatives. As for regaining relations with Abkhaz and Ossetian ethnicities, we have pretty interesting plans and invite any of you to discuss them in a working environment. These steps are very important to accelerate the reconciliation process and believe that there is no alternative to the peaceful solution of the problem" stated Mr. Kvirikashvili.
Acting Prime Minister spoke about the steps to be made towards the boosted performance in the following areas: rule of law and protection of human rights. In his opinion, third phase of the Judiciary System will be launched soon and chances of positive developments will be further improved.