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Georgia Undertakes Higher Social Commitments
// Georgian PM disclosed the new government’s plans
Georgia acquired its new government on Thursday. The parliament unanimously approved the list of government members suggested by the president. The opposition boycotted the session, saying that “the puppet parliament will do whatever the president tells them” and that “the new government won’t change anything”. Kommersant’s correspondent Vladimir Novikov reports from Tbilisi.
The Georgian parliament’s session, first after the government crisis and the presidential election, took place in a half-empty session hall: the opposition had announced its intention to boycott both “the illegitimate president” and “the puppet parliament”.
“They are trying to turn the parliament into a notary office for approving the president’s decrees,” said David Zurabishvili, a leader of the Democratic Front, which unites several opposition factions. “We will take part only in those parliament sessions which we consider interesting from the viewpoint of democratic processes development.”
By the way, the session was boycotted not only by the radical opposition factions, which are part of the Democratic Front and the United Opposition, but also by the moderate opposition. New Rightists member Manana Nachkebia said: “The new government is illegitimate because it was suggested by an illegitimate president. Moreover, it won’t change anything in the country, because there are no new people among its members.”
Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze came to the session hall wearing an orange tie, according to his old tradition. The tie is the color of the Bank of Georgia, and Gurgenidze was its head for many years. Other ministers entered together with the PM, and sat down in a special box not far from the tribune where the president usually speaks.
This time, it was Gurgenidze who spoke from the tribune. He described Georgia’s promising prospects in case if the presidential and governmental program “United Georgia – Without Poverty” is fully implemented. The program’s name underwent significant correction: in the campaign period, it was called just “Georgia Without Poverty”. The PM explained that the new government has other important tasks along with struggling against poverty: “We decided to call the program this way so as to underline that our purpose is not only to overcome poverty, but also to unite the country and to rally the society.”
The PM repeated the president’s slogans, saying that “the program is aimed at the coming five years, and its purpose is to make the budget face the nation”. This slogan has often triggered sarcastic remarks of the opposition: “So, in the previous period, with PM Zurab Nogaideli, the budget was turned to the nation not with its face, but with something else, which we always said, but the ruling party denied.”
In his speech, Gurgenidze focused on solutions for social issues. He said that 1,800 billion lari (over $1 billion) has been allocated from the budget in 2008 for social programs, which makes up almost one third of the budget. Anticipating the question where the government would get the money, the PM explained the budget’s social part has been increased by means of reducing defense expenditures. “We have already bought enough weapons for the army, we have already built good roads, and now we will need far less money for these purposes,” said Gurgenidze. He promised budget surplus for the entire period of his premiership. Moreover, he suggested the parliament pass a special law banning the Cabinet from submitting a non-surplus budget to the parliament.
“Extra profits will be accumulated in two funds: the stabilization fund and the future generations’ fund. The former will insure macroeconomic risks, in case of international financial crises, for instance. The latter will be spent after Abkhazia and South Ossetia return into the Georgian state, -- for reintegrating the territory, helping the local residents, solving social issues, bringing back refugees and helping them settle,” said the PM.
That passage was pronounced on purpose. When speaking about help to “reintegrated nations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia”, the PM hinted the reintegration is to happen already with the current government. The opposition immediately qualified the utterance as “groundless populism”.
Gurgenidze also said the government plans to reduce the unified profit and social tax down to 15 percent (it is 25 percent now), and the tax on bank deposit interest will be cancelled at all. Certainly, the opposition immediately took the last statement as the PM’s lobbying for the banking sector, especially as he is a successful Georgian banker.
The new government also wants to solve the poverty and unemployment issue in five years by means of the investment inflow which is to made up $2-2.5 billion annually (half of the budget), as the PM estimated. He considers it a realistic task if “the country remains politically stable”. So, the PM hinted that new disturbances and anti-government rallies are now unacceptable.
Members of the parliament listened to the speech silently, without interrupting the PM with applause, unlike usually. However, they did not ask any uncomfortable questions to Gurgenidze. The session seemed to be just another formality for the MPs. Nazi Aronia, deputy from the city of Zugdidi in the west of Georgia, was the only one to animate the session. She complained that “among the 17 ministers, just one – Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze – represents the nation’s beautiful half”. Aronia regards it as a “violation of gender equality, because everyone knows how clever, diplomatical, and highly professional women of high state positions are”. At hearing these words, Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze, who had been silent so far, cheered up and loudly thanked Aronia. By the way, Burjanadze, who played the key part in the autumn events, is not very pleased that her recommendations for forming the new Cabinet were hardly considered. There now is just one minister who can be called Burjanadze’s close associate. It is new Foreign Minister David Bakradze, who had headed the Conflicts Settlement Ministry before.
However, the PM promised to struggle against gender inequality, and said that “45 percent of top managers were women” in the Bank of Georgia, of which he had been head before his becoming the PM. Yet, Gurgenidze added that bank CEOs are “freer in their choice”.
At last, the issue of approving the Cabinet was put to voting. The exact number of those present, 141 MPs, voted for.
So, Georgia acquired its ‘new old Cabinet’, in which the power ministers retained their positions, while the foreign minister, the education minister, and the conflict settlement minister were replaced. From now on, the latter ministry is renamed into the Reintegration Ministry, while its new head Timur Iakobashvili promised to sign Russia-lobbied agreement on “non-resorting to force in relation to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but only if the document is a part of the package on the entire settlement of the conflict”.
Georgia’s new foreign minister is David Bakradze, former conflicts settlement minister. Apparently, there will be no drastic changes in the country’s foreign policy. He said on Thursday that “the new government’s priorities remain the same: Euro-Atlantic integration and the country’s unification” and that “the current year will be decisive in solving the conflicts”.
Former Foreign Minister Gela Bejuashvili got a new position as well. He now heads the Foreign Intelligence Department. Sources in the parliament said he was appointed to that position because of “Bejuashvili’s achievements in the country’s foreign policy and the president’s desire to make the Georgian intelligence function more successfully.”
Vladimir Novikov
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 01, 2008
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