Economic Council discusses Borjomi company proposal of Gov’t acquiring shares, reviews public employment programme

The formal proposal of IDS Borjomi, the Georgian company producing and exporting the Borjomi mineral water, to transfer a part of its shares to the Government of Georgia for free, and the ongoing public employment programme were discussed in a meeting of the Economic Council, chaired by the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, on Friday.

Garibashvili instructed ministries to “work actively” to complete procedures for fulfilling the proposal of the company, which has made the offer after the war in Ukraine and international sanctions on Russia had hampered its operations and effected closure of its plants in Georgia.

Members of the Council also informed the PM about the progress of the public employment programme, launched following the initiative of the latter to offer jobs to hundreds of thousands of citizens receiving state benefits.

The meeting also focused on “positive indicators” of economic growth and “growing dynamics” of tourism recovery, the Government Administration said, with officials noting that the number of weekly international flights to the country had exceeded 400. They also noted the “growing” tourist activity in the seaside region of Adjara. 

The Council positively assessed the process of import and sale of cheap medicines produced in Turkey, with more than 150,000 people benefitting from the available products in the 10 weeks since the launch of the initiative, with citizens saving ₾42 million ($ 14,457,830/€ 13,700,963).

The positive trends in unemployment reduction were also highlighted, showing a 2.5 percent reduction in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year, and decreasing to 19.4 percent. The number of the employed in the country increased by 71.3 thousand, while the number of the unemployed decreased by 27.9 thousand.