2020-04-02
No one has prohibited anything but taking responsibility and going to the Ministry of Healthcare or the Center for Disease Control to obtain information concerning the conditions that are necessary in order to protect the health of our employees and clients, and subsequently receiving permission to work at the corresponding headquarters - there is no problem here, and there can be no problem here. Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia made this statement while discussing online sales during a broadcast on Imedi TV.
According to the prime minister, the main goal of the government is to maximize the retention of jobs while introducing remote forms of service.
"We must consider that the service sector is an area that involves the movement of the largest number of people - this concerns the back-end, as well as having the most contact with the client, our citizens. For this reason, adhering to basic safety requirements is of critical importance here, given the obligations imposed on the state, as well as from the point of view of business responsibility. I personally guarantee that every company that will adhere to these requirements will be granted permission to continue to operate in a similar manner within several days. In general, we are talking about heavy quarantine conditions for a limited period of time. We all understand that our financial resources are not great - unfortunately, we are neither Britain nor Germany, therefore we cannot finance our citizens while they stay at home for months. Regardless of how challenging this situation might be, all of us together will need to start working and this time will come very soon," the prime minister stated.
Giorgi Gakharia noted that the chief principle of the government is to minimize damage to the economy.
"Whether we want to or not, we are talking about businesses, jobs, the economy - we are still taking COVID-19 as the starting point because this is the struggle that we are in now. The main thing is the spirit. Our main principle is to minimize the damage to the economy. However, to reiterate, these are the restrictions that are necessary today and they are temporary. Even under these conditions, when a rather serious form of quarantine has been declared in the country, this does not constitute total quarantine - throughout the day, citizens of Georgia who are employed in the fields that are permitted to operate still go to work; they have no problems with movement. Today, in the majority of European capitals, simply leaving home is restricted and requires special permits," Giorgi Gakharia stated.
The prime minister stressed that large-scale systemic enterprises, the cessation of operations of which would constitute a serious blow to the economy, will of course continue to work.
"They will have specific conditions for safety, primarily in terms of protecting health safety. They are assuming responsibility for meeting these requirements, beginning with the transportation of their employees, the conditions at the work place, including controlling the health of their employees, ensuring temperature screening, and many other things. With these conditions in place, systemic enterprises will continue to operate and this is quite a large part of the economy," the head of government stated.
The prime minister also discussed the construction sector and systemic infrastructural projects, which will continue being implemented.
"The construction sector and systemic infrastructural projects, on which the rapid development of the economy in the post-crisis period depends, will, of course, continue to function. However, they will continue to function in full compliance with the conditions for the protection of human health. Also, as with the systemic fields, we have direct communication and we are doing everything to prevent their operations from being hindered. At the same time, we should all understand that some forms of remote service require a large number of people working in the back office. We all welcome the fact that large retail chains have switched to the remote provision of services and we will support this in various ways, including on the legislative level, in terms of certain concessions, and so forth," Giorgi Gakharia stated.
Press Service of the Government Administration