Caucasus Press Review (May 26 – June 1)

Caucasus home and foreign political events in local media

The state program 'Produce in Georgia' comes into force on June 1. It focuses on development of business in the republic, encouragement of business, improvement of competition and export potential of the private sector by making finances, real estate and modern technologies more accessible.

 

The Svobodnaya Gruziya paper says that the program’s policies are set according to social polls organized by the government and expert opinions. The budget of the program totals 46 million laris. 30 million of the sum will be spent on production and processing of agricultural products, the rest on production of industrial products.

 

Speaking at the presentation of the program, Georgian Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili said: "It is a very optimistic, realistic and interesting project. The time is close when Georgian products will be sold on the EU market and the 'Made in Georgia' label will have a special meaning. I want to urge businessmen: now is the time when we need to care about our country together.”

 

The program will support production industries selected according to such criteria as volume of imports and local production potential. The industrial fields are paper and cardboard, construction materials, the textile industry, chemical production, wood processing, electric appliances, pharmaceuticals, engineering, car parts, rubber and plastic, metal production. The priorities in agriculture are fruit-growing, vegetable-growing, development of high-tech greenhouses, animal farms, bird farms, fur and leather processing, processing of agricultural products.

 

Participants of the program will be given property for a symbolic price of 1 lari. Up to 100 real estate lots in Tbilisi and the regions will be prepared for the purpose.

 

The paper says that Roman Gotsiridze, the head of the Economic Development Center, believes that the program has many controversial points. First of all, it is doubtful in anti-monopoly terms, putting business in uneven situations. It has corruption risks. The expert assumes that it needs an impartial commission for fair distribution of real estate, to keep the process in accordance with market competition, not functionaries’ interests.

 

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A presentation of restaurants and other facilities was made in Azerbaijan on May 28. Sales of apartments on the Khazar Islands was announced. The Islands are a luxury residential district built on an artificial archipelago of 50 islands in the Caspian Sea, 25km from Baku. Realization of the Khazar Islands project started 3 years ago. It is distinguished for the worlds tallest building (1050m) due to be built there. It will have apartments, hotels, restaurants, trade and business centers.

 

According to the Ekho newspaper, buying an apartment on the artificial islands will cost 4,000 manats per square meter. The apartments offered with renovation and furniture can be bought on a hire-purchase system for 5 years with no interest fees with a beneficial mortgage loan granted for 15 years. Most buildings on the Khazar Islands will be 25 floors high. Some will have 40-60 floors. A total of 250,000 apartments will be for sale on the Islands.

 

The area will be reachable by car, plane, helicopter or motorboat. A road and tram lines will be built to move between islands. Roads will be designed to make traffic lights unnecessary. Underground walkways for pedestrians will be built every 250m. Khazar Islands will have a Disneyland, a hippodrome, an F-1 track, 10 brand hotels with heights of 70-85 floors. The new residential complex will cost $100 billion, according to preliminary studies. It will be built in three stages. Realization of the first stage will be concluded in 2017, the second in 2020-2022, the third in 2025-2026. The Avesta Concern realizing the project invited foreign investors last year. Meetings are planned with potential investors from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Czech Republic, China and Qatar.

 

The article emphasizes the difficulties that may arise during such mass sales, attraction of investors and purchasers. The internal market can hardly manage the multi-billion-dollar project. It must be noted that the political situation in Azerbaijan over the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh problem, the resort season shorter than the season in Dubai, where such projects are usually realized, are just a few problems to name. The project needs advanced management, advertising and presentations in many cities of the world to show all the benefits and the uniqueness of the new city.

 

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Armenian migrants abroad send up to $2.5-3 billion to their relatives in the homeland every year. About $2 billion of the sum is sent from their compatriots in Russia, Delovoy Express cites Agaron Adibekyan, the director of the Sotsiometr Center for Sociological Research, at a press conference on migration trends in Armenia held last week.

 

According to Adibekyan, labour migrants are not a problem at all, the problem is that the processes are uncontrollable. He reminded that Turkey had signed a labor force deal with Germany in 1961. The deal stated that part of the money earned by Turkish workers would be sent to Turkey by bank. Migrants were only given a minimum of what they earned, the rest went directly to their families. Thus, Turkey was making billions of dollars a year this way.

 

Armenia, Adibekyan goes on, has no such deals. The only benefit, in his opinion, is the more or less good attitudes towards Armenian migrants in Russia. Concerning the latest changes in Russian migration law, he thinks that it is to prevent violations. “In the last 10 years, the population of Russia dropped by 10 million people, mainly the native Russian population. Russia is concerned about radical changes in the ethnic composition of the country. In one word, it is better Armenians than someone unfamiliar,” the official summarizes.

 

 

He also believes that in order to control migration processes it is important to understand their scale, and the goals and opportunities for migrants to return home. Construction and the involvement of large enterprises could play a significant role in this regard. "We need 10-20 major industries where around 1 million people could work. This requires 100-120 billion dollars of investments. Potentially, we have such opportunities, but, unfortunately, the government is now full of people who have never worked in industries and who cannot see a solution to problems through the prism of the development of industry and therefore there is nothing about large enterprises in the program of the new prime minister," the sociologist said. ***As reported by the South Ossetia newspaper, the government of the republic has recently adopted a number of documents related to improving the salaries of public sector employees. The newspaper addressed Prime Minister Domenty Kulumbegov to expand on the topic. He explained that this raise will affect all state employees. Given that more than 14,000 people are employed in the public sector of the region, the salary increase will have a positive effect on the family budgets of the vast majority of citizens. "We have provided an opportunity for all agencies to develop their own approach to increasing salaries," the prime minister said. "The only requirement was to prioritize the increase of salaries of employees with the lowest salaries, and not to apply it to the governing bodies."In the areas of education and physical culture and sports the increase will amount to from 13 to 18 %, based on the principle the lower the salary, the higher the raise. A similar increase is provided for the Vaneyev South Ossetian Research Institute and the South-Ossetian State University, which have recently been withdrawn from the Ministry of Education of South Ossetia. Additionally, allowances have been introduced to employees with honorary titles "people's" and "honored" amounting to 700 and 350 rubles respectively.In healthcare, different categories of health workers will receive increases of from 13 to 30%.Several departments have decided to introduce the same raise for all employees. Thus, salaries of workers in the field of culture will be raised by 14%, agriculture by 13%, information and press by 10%, while the employees of all law enforcement agencies will receive a 4% increase in their salaries. Employees of the republic's State Drama Theater will get an increase of up to 100 %, while the management of the theater will have it determined from month to month based on the work of each employee. The government has also increased the honorarium fund of the local state-run television channel by 100 thousand rubles. Kulumbegov said that the government will continue to work on raising public sector wages in the future.***The North Ossetia newspaper reports that during the summer holidays more than 58,000 children and teenagers will have the opportunity to benefit from vacation institutions.All in all 184 sanatorium organizations, including educational institutions, health centers, recreation centers and sanatoria, will participate in the summer health program of the republic. It is expected that more than three thousand teenagers will work in the summer in 12 district teams. The total amount of funds allocated for the health campaign in 2014 is 217.2 million rubles (151.4 million rubles from the regional budget and 65.75 million rubles from the federal budget).The program prioritizes funding holidays for children left without parental care as well as children from disadvantaged and low-income families. To provide funding for summer vacations for 594 orphans the national budget has allocated 7.7 million rubles.An inventory of the material and technical base of children's health organizations of all types has been conducted, as well as repairs and preparatory work in children's health organizations. For these purposes the government has allocated 8 million rubles.The ministries and agencies of the region are carefully monitoring terrorist issues and fire safety and will continue doing so throughout the summer. Aspects related to sanitation, nutrition, sports equipment, medical supplies, telephone and mobile communications are also being supervised by government bodies. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has been charged with helping children to get to their vacation destinations and back, as well as ensuring security and safety. More than 200 police officers have been designated for this task.

 

He also believes that in order to control migration processes it is important to understand their scale, and the goals and opportunities for migrants to return home. Construction and the involvement of large enterprises could play a significant role in this regard. "We need 10-20 major industries where around 1 million people could work. This requires 100-120 billion dollars of investments. Potentially, we have such opportunities, but, unfortunately, the government is now full of people who have never worked in industries and who cannot see a solution to problems through the prism of the development of industry and therefore there is nothing about large enterprises in the program of the new prime minister," the sociologist said. 

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As reported by the South Ossetia newspaper, the government of the republic has recently adopted a number of documents related to improving the salaries of public sector employees. The newspaper addressed Prime Minister Domenty Kulumbegov to expand on the topic. He explained that this raise will affect all state employees. Given that more than 14,000 people are employed in the public sector of the region, the salary increase will have a positive effect on the family budgets of the vast majority of citizens. "We have provided an opportunity for all agencies to develop their own approach to increasing salaries," the prime minister said. "The only requirement was to prioritize the increase of salaries of employees with the lowest salaries, and not to apply it to the governing bodies."

 

In the areas of education and physical culture and sports the increase will amount to from 13 to 18 %, based on the principle the lower the salary, the higher the raise. A similar increase is provided for the Vaneyev South Ossetian Research Institute and the South-Ossetian State University, which have recently been withdrawn from the Ministry of Education of South Ossetia. Additionally, allowances have been introduced to employees with honorary titles "people's" and "honored" amounting to 700 and 350 rubles respectively.In healthcare, different categories of health workers will receive increases of from 13 to 30%.Several departments have decided to introduce the same raise for all employees. Thus, salaries of workers in the field of culture will be raised by 14%, agriculture by 13%, information and press by 10%, while the employees of all law enforcement agencies will receive a 4% increase in their salaries. Employees of the republic's State Drama Theater will get an increase of up to 100 %, while the management of the theater will have it determined from month to month based on the work of each employee. The government has also increased the honorarium fund of the local state-run television channel by 100 thousand rubles. Kulumbegov said that the government will continue to work on raising public sector wages in the future.

 

***

 

The North Ossetia newspaper reports that during the summer holidays more than 58,000 children and teenagers will have the opportunity to benefit from vacation institutions.All in all 184 sanatorium organizations, including educational institutions, health centers, recreation centers and sanatoria, will participate in the summer health program of the republic. It is expected that more than three thousand teenagers will work in the summer in 12 district teams. The total amount of funds allocated for the health campaign in 2014 is 217.2 million rubles (151.4 million rubles from the regional budget and 65.75 million rubles from the federal budget).The program prioritizes funding holidays for children left without parental care as well as children from disadvantaged and low-income families. To provide funding for summer vacations for 594 orphans the national budget has allocated 7.7 million rubles.An inventory of the material and technical base of children's health organizations of all types has been conducted, as well as repairs and preparatory work in children's health organizations. For these purposes the government has allocated 8 million rubles.The ministries and agencies of the region are carefully monitoring terrorist issues and fire safety and will continue doing so throughout the summer. Aspects related to sanitation, nutrition, sports equipment, medical supplies, telephone and mobile communications are also being supervised by government bodies. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has been charged with helping children to get to their vacation destinations and back, as well as ensuring security and safety. More than 200 police officers have been designated for this task.