Caucasian press overview (January 13 - 19)

Vestnik Kavkaza

The National Council of Democratic Forces(NCDF), the union of the main opposition forces of the republic that formed during the presidential campaign of 2013, after a long pause has held a session on January 16. During this session they tried to outline their further struggle after losing a political heavyweight – the Musavat Party – as well as several trifling party groups and civil activists.

The Baku newspaper "Yeni zaman" communicates that, of the 139 members of the organization, after the disturbance in the National Council only 79 stayed in it, representing a wide political spectrum, including such parties as the Popular Front Party, the Classical Popular Front Party, the Islam Party, the EL Movement, and NGO representatives.

According to the newspaper, the three-hour discussions between the 60 participants of the session, where the most important topics of the agenda were to be a brief overview of the history and a wide range of issues related to the further struggle, were not exactly constructive. The top-level functionaries of the Popular Front Party contributed a newspaper dispute about the “treacherous Musavat leaving the Council”. The EL Movement lobbied again, making Rustam Ibragimbekov the honorable Chairman of the Council. Sulkheddin Akper, head of the self-disbanded Open Society Party, initiated the creation of the NCDF Coordination Council (refusing, however, to join it). The session focused on those issues, and each of them became an apple of discord for the session's participants.

Thus, after 7 months of existence the NCDF bore great image losses that began on the day it was established (problems with registering Ibragimbekov as the single candidate, refusal of several parties and candidates to take part in the elections, internal conflicts of the followers of the soft and rigid line, confrontation of foreign policy preferences – integration with Europe, Eurasian Union or Islamic Solidarity). Besides, it failed again to elaborate a productive strategy, including towards their main opponent – the government. They failed to decide if it would be radical or constructive, uncompromising or conciliatory. 

According to the newspaper, the main problem of this and former attempts of uniting the Azeri opposition are inner intrigues and personal ambitions prevailing over the common interests of the party.

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The newspaper “Voice of Armenia” informs that CJSC “Armenian Agency for Export Insurance” (AAEI) has been created in the republic. Its function is to insure the financial losses of exporters of goods or services, in particular when a foreign customer fails to pay for the goods or services acquired as they fall due.

According to the newspaper, this state export support tool, formed upon a government decision within the framework of the Export Oriented Production Policy, is fundamentally new for Armenia. The companies that operate on the external market can use the Agency to assess the customer’s risk, and in some cases, the political risk of the destination country as well. After that a decision on the insurance is to be made.

Another important function of the Agency is the activation of funding exporters by the banks, as well as the reduction of the cost of complex finance solutions. The creation of the new agency is profitable for the banks, for many risks they had to take into account when making decisions of crediting will now be a pain in the neck for the AAEI.

According to Ms Karine Minasyan, First Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs, trade financing will also be  developed within the framework of this project. She says, "Today practically none of such tools as letters of credit, factoring and other kinds of credit work here. And the new company will help activate all of them, at once making them cheaper for our manufacturers, being comparable to property mortgage credits. This is the essence of this organization, so we believe it will assist in attracting other companies to the market, as well, for no one has insured exports in Armenia yet".

The company’s registered capital will amount to about 2 billion drams. Its actions will be controlled both by the government and by the Central Bank. Insurance won’t be free for the exporters: a relatively favorable fee has been established (no higher than 1% of the contract sum). If anything happens, the government covers all the risks, though, as Ms Minasyan stated, the agency is intended to prevent risks rather than compensate for them.

The Board of the new company has already been created, where government bodies related to export to some extent (the ministries of economic affairs, finance, justice, agriculture, foreign affairs etc.) are represented at deputy ministerial level. The main administrative group has also been formed, and a competition for the position of the agency director has been opened. By the middle of 2014, the new structure is supposed to start its active work and start accepting applications.

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The Georgian Times communicates about the Chinese campaign on popularizing Georgia as an attractive and interesting tourist destination. In September 2013, the Georgian National Tourism Administration  received the representatives of Chinese media, China Southern Airlines managers, as well as 11 Chinese travel companies. After that, China expressed its interest in carrying out a publicity campaign of Georgia’s touristic potential. Leading Chinese TV channels and websites show videos and banners about Georgian tourist attractions and trips to Georgia.

Another means of attracting tourists is placing ads for Georgia on board China Southern Airlines planes, which is one of the world’s six largest air carriers. Their planes go to 193 destinations, with about 1930 daily flights to 35 countries of the world.  Georgia also hopes that, thanks to China Southern Airlines' transit flights to 169 countries, the information will be available to passengers from elsewhere using the airlines.

The media note that recently the Georgian government has been working a lot on converting Georgia into a site of tourist pilgrimage. The natural and climatic diversity (sea, mountains, mineral waters, resorts) is favorable for it, as well as relatively low trip costs. Earlier, Georgian travel companies carried out an active advertising campaign in Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Israel, Azerbaijan and the Baltic countries.

In June 2013, an awareness-raising tour took place in Georgia for 20 travel companies from Russia. In July, 13 representatives of  Russian travel companies and travel agents who work with corporate events. The participants agreed that Georgia as a destination is still to be developed, as well as tourist routes, spa treatment, youth tourism, corporate events, wedding tourism, gastronomic tourism and mountain river-rafting programs.

Russians’ interest in this country is growing, which is confirmed by the fact that almost 1.5 times more Russians visited Georgia in 2013 than in the previous year.

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OJSC Raduga from Vladikavkaz, a manufacturer for the military industrial sector, last year increased production by almost 30%. According to the North Ossetia newspaper, along with the main line of activity (locator units), the Ministry of Defense has ordered the plant to manufacture a command position on the base of KamAZ. It would cost about 60 million rubles. In addition, the enterprise has recently received an order for equipment for acquisition of meteorological data in civil aeronautics. The main part of the mechanism – the technological container – is to be assembled in Vladikavkaz. To manufacture it, high professionalism and an innovative approach are needed.

The order turnover this year amounted to 200 million rubles. The author of the article believes that the reason why Raduga survived the new market conditions is their solid production potential accumulated  during the 35 years of their existence, as well as the staff qualification and well-thought out organization of labor.

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According to the South Ossetia newspaper, the construction of the new building of the Khetagurov Republican State Drama Theater has finally got moving. The object was listed in the Investment Program for Assistance to the Social and Economic Development of the Republic of South Ossetia in 2014-2015. The new building will replace the old one that burned down in the fire of 2005. Today the remnants are being dismantled and the territory is being cleaned.

The theater building constructed in the center of Tskhinvali integer  early 1930s was its main architectural monument and cultural center. It hosted plays and other cultural and entertainment events. Right after the fire, discussions about renovation started. Different dates for commencing construction were named, but they kept being postponed. Many projects of the new building were elaborated, but none of them met all the necessary requirements.

Only the eighth project satisfied everyone. According to Bagir Gagloev, Head of the Department of Architecture and Constructions, the area of the new theater building is to be expanded a bit, and the number of seats will be increased to 500.

The stage is being projected by Spanish specialists. The building will be comfortable for the theatre staff to work in. The historical appearance of the façade is to be preserved.

The project is planned to be implemented in 2-2.5 years. In 2014, the building frame and utilities are to be ready.  These works are to be financed with 400 million rubles. The total construction project cost amounts to 1.299 billion rubles.