Georgian Prime Minister sums up state priorities, sets goals for renewed cabinet
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The recent major reshuffle, in which several ministries will be merged and others – replaced, aims at making the Cabinet of Ministers more flexible, reduce bureaucracy and save administrative resources, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said today.
Kvirikashvili spoke in front of a hearing of several parliamentary committees including opposition, prior to tomorrow’s vote of confidence from Parliament for the country’s renewed cabinet.
He said European and Euro-Atlantic integration, human rights protection and supremacy of law remain as the cabinet’s main priorities, while education, trade-economy, agriculture, nature protection will also be of high importance.
Praising Georgia’s trade potential, Kvirikashvili said European Union (EU) remains Georgia’s main trade partner with the 20% increase of export with EU-member states.
He said Georgia’s transformation into the transit and logistic hub is also among the state priorities with the Anaklia Deep Sea Port and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway as the key projects.
Prime Minister Kvirikashvili addresses parliament members today. Photo by PM's press office
Kvirikashvili said important steps have been made to promote vocational education and make it competitive with the higher education. He said the number of students at the vocational colleges has increased with 20%.
He said with the improved system the vocational colleges will become more popular among the youth who want to receive certain skills and find jobs without their university degrees.
Welcoming the increasing number of start-ups, Kvirikashvili said the state has supported around 70 emerging businesses so far.
It is very important that the youth with innovative ideas could have their start-up ideas financed”, Kvirikashvili said welcoming increasing interest towards the Technology Parks in the capital Tbilisi and Zugdidi, in western Georgia.
He said the business house project for legal entities will now make it easier to get all the services related to doing business at one unique space. This, Kvirikashvili said, will also increase transparency and effectiveness of the process.
Kvirikashvili speaks about the priorities of the renewed cabinet of ministers prior to tomorrow's vote of confidence from Parliament. Photo by PM's Press office
Stressing importance of agriculture and nature protection, Kvirikashvili further noted that the country has achieved a lot with its agricultural policy and cooperatives, while now the country will move to fully ecologically safe standards of production.
He said the government will fight against illegal cutting of the Georgian forests, which remains among the main challenges to nature. To achieve this, Kvirikashvili said, coordination among different ministries will be decisive.
The criminal police should be more effective and should react more rapidly to the challenges that our society faces nowadays, says Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia.
Georgia’s economic team is working on a new reform that will further improve the country’s tax legislation and will result in additional surplus capital for the country.
Georgia’s Minister of Corrections Kakha Kakhishvili says that the ministry plans to carry out unprecedented reforms in 2018 to encourage employment in prisoners that will lead to a decrease of prison terms.
The Government of Georgia is undergoing a major reshuffle, where several ministries will be merged. The changes will be approved at the nearest government meeting after which the new Cabinet will be presented to Parliament for a vote of confidence.
Georgia’s Parliament is discussing whether or not approve the renewed Cabinet today. An extraordinary parliamentary meeting started at 12 pm. The discussion will be followed by a vote where lawmakers will or will not give confidence to the renewed Cabinet of Ministers.
Georgian Parliament Members (MPs) have approved and given their vote of confidence to the Prime Minister and updated list of cabinet members. The vote of confidence was given with 103 votes in favour and 17 against after a long discussion at parliament.
"2018 will be a more dynamic year for Georgia in terms of economic growth,” said Georgia's Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili at the last Government Meeting of 2017, while summarising the achievements his government made this year and setting tasks for 2018.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili is holding the first meeting of 2018 with representatives of the country’s business community. At the meeting with the representatives of the Business Association of Georgia, the PM summarised key achievements of 2017 and stated that in terms of macroeconomic parameters, the year 2017 ended successfully.