Supporting Georgia’s economy a priority, says PM

The Georgian economy and how it can be supported and strengthened was heavily debated at today's Government meeting.

One way to do this involved state agencies, where in instances where funds allocated to state agencies were not spent effectively, the funds would be transferred to the Government's Reserve Fund, stated Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

At the meeting the head of the Georgian Government spoke about all the ongoing negativity around the world and called on the Georgian Government to take more action in response.

In addition, the PM assigned the Government's economic team to present a report on fulfillment of the budget at the end of every month.

"We have communication at the end of each month but I would like to once again stress this issue. I know that under the leadership of Giorgi Kvirikashvili, working groups have been created to discuss expenditures. All our funds have to be spend effectively and we must mobilise our ministries. This year will not be an easy one, given the fact that some negative processes are taking place in the world and that is why we have to meet our challenges with even more mobilisation,” he said.

Garibashvili said if institutions were not able to spend the full amount of their funds effectively, the unused money would be directed to the country's Reserve Fund and the money would then be used by other institutions or where needed.

After the PM spoke, the country's Finance Minister spoke about how state funds were used in 2014 and the fulfillment of last year's budget. 

Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri said in January the tax revenue plan amounted to 540 million GEL and by last night, data showed 519 million GEL was already mobilised in the budget.

"So we need 21 million GEL within two days to fulfill our plan. The average income of taxes per day is 30 million GEL, which means that our result will exceed the data from the previous year,” he said.

On another note, at the meeting Government officials also heard about the developments of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway project. Yesterday was an important day as the first test train was launched on the Akhalkalaki-Kartsakhi section of the new railway.

A special ceremony was held to mark the occasion. Georgia's Economy Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili attended the occasion and said the railway would be fully operational by the end of 2015.