Georgia offers adoption of resolution to Open Government partners

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has offered more than 70 partners of the Open Government global initiative to adopt a resolution that will "clearly establish key principles and approaches of the Open Government Partnership (OGP),” which will be based on democracy and transparency.

Bakhtadze voiced an offer today during the 5th Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tbilisi, providing an opportunity for leaders from OGP’s 78 participating countries, 20 local governments, and beyond to exchange ideas on how they are making their governments more transparent, accountable and responsive to citizens’ needs.

We should prove that first of all the Open Government Partnership is an opportunity for ordinary citizens to feel real changes. Georgia, like many of the OGP countries, still faces challenges, that is why during the summit we will offer a resolution to the Steering Committee of the OGP,” Bakhtadze said earlier.

We welcome our newest members who have joined the partnership: Ecuador, Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco, Portugal, and Senegal! Welcome! pic.twitter.com/Xg8AgnDL8D

— Open Gov Partnership (@opengovpart) July 18, 2018

Bakhtadze also announced that the government of Georgia will establish "even more effective” anti-corruption mechanisms.

I believe that any anti-corruption system should be focused on the exposure of corrupt deals, as well as on their prevention. To achieve this goal, the active involvement of the public and supervisory agencies of the state is vitally important”, Bakhtadze said.

Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze, who also delivered a speech during the summit, stated that the Georgian parliament has the high ambition of becoming a "maximally transparent and accountable body.”

Georgia assumed the chairmanship of the OGP Steering Committee in September 2017, which meant that for the first time Georgia became the chair of the OGP for a one year term taking the role over from France.

During its OGP chairmanship Georgia’s strategic goals are:

• Strengthen co-creation and citizen engagement;
• Advancing transparency and the fight against corruption;
• Generating innovation in public service delivery;
• Building a better partnership.