Georgia’s 2012 budget is significantly different from the 2011 budget due to it being an election year. The expenditure part of the budget is particularly interesting. There are several expenditures which directly or indirectly aim to increase voters’ content, and this will
From 2009 to 2011, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) carried out the first and so far only survey of eTransparency in Georgia, monitoring some 100 web pages of different public authorities in Georgia, writes Constantine Janjghava, project
In official or semi-official conversations, president Saakashvili’s supporters often remark that Saakashvili should somehow stay in power to finish the reforms he started, because otherwise the country’s direction will be reversed and it will head back into the past,
In December 2011 the Parliament of Georgia upheld amendments to rules about party financing and other relevant regulations. These amendments impose severe and disproportionate limitations on voters, the private sector: business, non-governmental organizations outside o
On December 4, 2011, the president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili announced an initiative to build a new city called “Lazika” in the West of Georgia, between Anaklia and Kulevi. The new city is supposed to be the largest after the capital, Tbilisi, and reach a population of about
A lot of reforms have been carried out in the country during the first two decades after Georgia’s independence in 1991. Although some of them were rather controversial and contradictory, they led to significant changes in various spheres of Georgia’s social life, writes David Losaberidze,
– Right!
What we did not get was, something that was in the preliminary statement of the White House, stating that: “The President will reconfirm U.S. support for the integrity of Georgia’s territory within its internationally recognized borders”. We did not hear that; and really lacked that
Georgia’s only way forward towards strengthened security, economic growth and modernization is to build a pluralistic political society. Georgia cannot build a national security state, it must build a liberal state, writes international relations specialist Levan Tsutskiridze.
The Georgian public is already used to multiple amendments to different laws, which dramatically change regulation principles in different areas in the country. We also got used to the fact that some of the changes are introduced to the parliament and adopted by the legislator
A number of articles and statements have been boosting our hopes that NATO membership is within Georgia’s grasp. There are several arguments made to this effect, some more serious than others, writes Tedo Djapharidze, Georgia’s former ambassador to the United States. This rhetoric surely reflects a commitment to this objective, which no one disputes; but … Read more