Tag Archives: Georgia

Spanish company to lease Georgian Alphabet Tower for 1 lari

MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An unnamed Spanish company is reportedly on the brink of signing a deal to lease the so-called Alphabet Tower in Batumi for 1 lari a year. That’s about 40 cents.

The Alphabet Tower, much like its neighbouring Batumi Tower which houses a ferris wheel halfway up one of its flanks, has become an item of ridicule since it was built in 2011.

It was one of former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s projects to beautify Batumi and yet it has been virtually abandoned since it was completed. And this is important. The current government, headed by the Georgian Dream coalition, despises Mr Saakashvili. It views his projects around Batumi with particular contempt and has already sold the Batumi Tower. Selling off these towers, it appears to think, is a way of pouring more scorn and ridicule on Mr Saakashvili.

Designed and built by a Spanish architect the Georgian alphabet twists and winds its way up the side of the Alpabet Tower. There are 33 letters in the modern Georgian alphabet, but only 31 on the tower. Two letters had been missed.

The tower has never been used the media reported that a lift running to the top floor was out of service. If the Spanish company did take the lease on the tower, and it reportedly wants to put a restaurant on the top floor, it would have to spend thousands of dollars repairing it.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Georgia’s GDP growth rate stumbles

MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s economy by the end of April was just 0.9% larger than a year earlier, the Georgian national statistics agency said. Georgia and the rest of the region are coping with the twin impact of a drop in the value of the Russian rouble and a decline in oil prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Tiger attacks zoo keeper in Georgia

MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A tiger at Tbilisi Zoo attacked its keeper ripping her arms and legs, media reported. Reports said the woman keeper, who has worked at the zoo for 25 years, was standing in an area outside the main cage when she was attacked. Doctors said they had amputated her leg and her situation was serious.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Armenia signs declaration with EU

MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At an EU summit in Riga which included former Soviet states in the South Caucasus, Armenia signed a declaration supporting improved cooperation with Brussels. The Armenian delegation, though, declined to support a communique that was negative of Russia’s interference in Ukraine.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Apartment sales drop in Georgia

MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sales of new apartments in Georgia have slumped because of the worsening economic conditions, media reported quoting developers. Specifically, sales of luxury apartments are down 70% and sales of more basic apartments have dropped by 10%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia-Iran flights to begin

MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Direct Tbilisi-Tehran flights will begin next month, media reported quoting Tbilisi mayor David Narmania. The launch of a direct route between Tbilisi and Tehran highlights the growing links between the two countries. Tehran’s mayor Mohammad Bagher was visiting Tbilisi to sign a twinning agreement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

EU says Georgia is not yet ready for visa-free travel

MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At its summit meeting in Riga, the EU promised Georgia that it would decide by the end of the year whether to grant Georgians visa-free travel.

Georgia’s government has lobbied hard for a visa-free regime across Europe as it sees this as a vital step towards achieving its ultimate aim of joining the EU.

The EU had presented the so-called Visa Liberalisation Action Plan (VLAP) progress report on Georgia and Ukraine a couple of weeks earlier. It congratulated Georgia on its progress, but also pointed out that it needed to implement reforms in asylum, anti-corrup- tion, human trafficking and drugs.

The decision was a disappointment to Georgia’s government as well as for many ordinary Georgians. Misha Shavtvaladze, a political scientist from Tbilisi State University, explained.

“But the fact that we are not ready for this upgrade had a negative psychological effect. It has a lot to do with the national pride, like winning the Eurovision does.”

The opposition blamed the government for the lack of good news, but Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili said he did receive a positive message from the EU. Georgia will be the next country to be granted visa waiver, possibly even earlier than Ukraine, he told media.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia’s parliament to consider new banking law

MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament will consider adopting a law that will shift supervisory powers over commercial banks away from the Central Bank to an independent supervisory body, media reported.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Georgia’s Court questions election process

MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country’s parliamentary election process is unfair.

In particular, the Court said discrepancies in the size of the constituencies used for the first-past-the-post system diminished the election’s fairness.

In Georgia’s parliamentary elections, 150 MPs are voted into parliament. The first- past-the-post system is used to elect 73 MPs and proportional representation for the remain- ing 77 seats. The problem,advocates for change have said, is that the first-past-the-post constituencies vary in size from 6,000 voters to over 150,000 voters.

The landmark ruling strengthens the case for change.

“It’s up to the Georgian Parliament to decide on proportional and majoritarian models of the electoral system provided that constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens will be protected in this process,” Georgian media quoted the Constitutional Court as saying.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)

Four Georgian UNM MPs quit

MAY 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Four Georgian MPs quit the main opposition group the United National Movement (UNM), including the party’s executive secretary Zurab Japaridze. The UNM is former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili’s party. About a dozen UNM MPs have quit but Mr Japaridze is the most high profile.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)