facebook.com/ georgiatoday Issue no: 896/53 • NOVEMBER 15 - 17, 2016 • PUBLISHED TWICE WEEKLY PRICE: GEL 2.50 In this week’s issue... National Bank Head Expects Lari to Gain Value PAGE 3 Georgian Haves and Have Nots. Who’s to Blame and What to Do? ISET PAGE 4 Brands and Business The latest EBRD Conference to Be Organized Transition Report highlights in Tbilisi FOCUS Georgia's poor performance in inclusion and ON (UN)EQUAL social mobility PAGE 5 OPPORTUNITIES PAGE 4,9 Vano Chkhartishvili Refuses to Give up Federation of Tbilisi Mayor Criticizes Former Gov’t Businessmen’s Building PAGE 7 for Making Deal with C.T. Park Georgian BY THEA MORRSION Tbilisi Mayor, Davit Narmania Bay to Source: marshalpress.ge Export its avit Narmania, the Mayor of Tbilisi, says Product in the former ruling party United National Movement (UNM) made an unprofi t- 2017 able deal with the company C.T. Park, which regulates parking in the capital. PAGE 8 DNarmania made the statement in response to inde- pendent member of Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo), Aleksandre Elisashvili and Republican member, Davit RETAIL FPI | Zurabishvili, who requested the Mayor’s Offi ce sus- pend the contract with C.T. Park, saying the service Food Prices costs and rules have raised various questions with Start to Go Up regards to the company. Continued on page 2 PAGE 10 Prepared for Georgia Today Business by Markets Asof11ͲNovͲ2016 STOCKS Price w/w m/m BONDS Price w/w m/m BankofGeorgia(BGEOLN) GBP28.68 Ͳ1,2% Ͳ3,9% GEOROG04/21 105.06(YTM5.45%) Ͳ0,3% Ͳ0,4% GHG(GHGLN) GBP3.53 +0,7% +16,0% GEORG04/21 111.61(YTM3.98%) Ͳ0,2% Ͳ0,4% TBCBankGroup(TBCGLN) GBP13.50 +3,6% +7,1% GRAIL07/22 110.88(YTM5.48%) Ͳ0,7% Ͳ1,5% BGEOLN07/23 101.75(YTM5.68%) Ͳ0,9% Ͳ1,8% COMMODITIES Price w/w m/m CrudeOil,Brent(US$/bbl) 44,75 Ͳ1,8% Ͳ14,6% CURRENCIES Price w/w m/m GoldSpot(US$/OZ) 1227,64 Ͳ5,9% Ͳ2,0% GEL/USD 2,4700 +1,5% +5,1% GEL/EUR 2,6733 Ͳ0,8% +3,1% INDICES Price w/w m/m GEL/GBP 3,1169 +2,5% +9,5% FTSE100 6730,43 +0,6% Ͳ4,8% GEL/CHF 2,5010 Ͳ0,5% +5,2% FTSE250 17444,97 +1,0% Ͳ3,5% GEL/RUB 0,0375 Ͳ0,3% Ͳ DAX 10667,95 +4,0% +0,9% GEL/TRY 0,7583 Ͳ1,5% Ͳ0,5% DOWJONES 18847,66 +5,4% +4,0% GEL/AZN 1,4472 Ͳ0,5% Ͳ1,2% NASDAQ 5237,11 +3,8% Ͳ0,2% GEL/AMD 0,0052 +2,0% +6,1% MSCIEMEE 127,58 +0,4% Ͳ3,5% GEL/UAH 0,0962 +1,3% +5,6% MSCIEM 849,10 Ͳ3,5% Ͳ6,2% EUR/USD 0,9211 +2,6% +1,8% SP500 2164,45 +3,8% +1,3% GBP/USD 0,7937 Ͳ0,6% Ͳ3,8% MICEX 2031,92 +3,5% +1,5% CHF/USD 0,9880 +2,0% Ͳ0,1% MSCIFM 2405,07 Ͳ1,6% Ͳ4,7% RUB/USD 65,8368 +2,2% +5,0% GTIndex(GEL) 908,54 ͲͲTRY/USD 3,2488 +2,9% +5,3% GTIndex(USD) 720,66 Ͳ2,1% Ͳ6,3% AZN/USD 1,7295 +1,4% +8,0% GEORGIA TODAY 2 NEWS NOVEMBER 15 - 17, 2016 Global Chemical Producer BASF Enters Georgia and transportation. BY THEA MORRISON “Georgia needs investors like you,” the PM said. “Companies which acknowledge our country's strategic role as a gateway between Europe and leading chemical products producing Asia, a bridge between east and west and a part of company BASF is entering the Geor- the modern Silk Road.” gian market. The company manage- He went on to wish the new BASF venture in the ment assessed business environment region even greater success. in all countries of the region and chose BASF, which last year celebrated its 150th anni- AGeorgia in which to open their fi rst regional offi ce. versary, is the world's leading chemical producing The opening ceremony was attended by Georgia’s company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plas- Prime Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, and other tics and crop protection products to oil and gas governmental offi cials on Thursday. and performance products. The PM thanked the BASF management, espe- Last year, BASF posted sales of EUR 70 billion cially Senior Vice-president Laurent Tainturier, for and income from operations of approximately EUR establishing the company's regional offi ce in Geor- 6.7 billion. gia, which, according to Kvirikashvili, highlights The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint the progress the country has made due to effective ventures in more than 80 countries and operates government reforms. six integrated production sites and 390 other pro- Kvirikashvili expressed satisfaction that BASF duction sites in Europe, Asia, Australia, the Amer- has taken the advantage of Georgia's strategic loca- icas and Africa, aiming to “combine economic tion and one of the most attractive business climates success with environmental protection and social in the Eurasian region - a hub for business, logistics responsibility.” Tbilisi Mayor Criticizes Former Gov’t for Making Deal with C.T. Park Continued from page 1 during the rule of UNM. Its term expires in 2025. Several days ago, Sakrebulo members Elisashvili The Mayor’s Offi ce had earlier stated it could not and Zurabishvili called on the Mayor’s Offi ce to abolish the agreement with the company, as, accord- pay the 25 million GEL fi ne from the city budget, ing to international auditing company Ernst & saying during the last three years the amount of Young, cancellation of the agreement will cost the fi nes paid by Tbilisi residents to C.T. Park amounted Mayor’s offi ce 25 million GEL in expenses. to 62 million GEL, only 18 million GEL of which “This idea needs more arguments in favor- the was transferred to the Tbilisi budget. city cannot become victim of such irresponsible As the MPs noted, the City Hall and C.T. Park con- and reckless statements. But the previous govern- tract is valid until 2025, which means that within this ment did make a one-sided agreement with C.T. period the parking company can be expected to Park which prevents us from suspending the agree- receive more than 270 million GEL from the people. ment,” the Mayor stated. “Parking should be a municipal service, and it Narmania had meetings with representatives of should be governed by City Hall until a new tender C.T. Park but the parties were unable to agree on is announced,” stated Elisashvili. new regulations. C.T. Park has been operating in Tbilisi for around “We cannot cancel or make any reasonable changes nine years and has an exclusive right to arrange to his agreement unless C.T. Park agrees, and at and administer parking lots. However, Tbilisi res- present we do not have their consent to do so,” idents disapprove of the work of the company, say- said the Mayor. ing the costs are high and the cars are often taken The contract with C.T. Park was signed in 2007 to the pound illegally. GEORGIA TODAY NOVEMBER 15 - 17, 2016 BUSINESS 3 National Bank Georgian National Tourism Head Expects Lari Administration Makes to Gain Value Presentation in Iran devaluate against the US Dollar, and and is affected by many internal and BY THEA MORRISON currently one dollar offi cially costs 2.48 external factors,” stated the NBG Head. GEL but in some commercial banks it Georgia’s main opposition party, the reaches even 2.52 GEL. United National Movement (UNM), says ead of the National Bank The rise of the Dollar has resulted in that the Lari devaluation is the result of of Georgia (NBG), Koba the increased cost of products, clothes the government’s ineffi cient policies. Gvenetadze, has positive and food. Financial experts do not have “The government is carrying out such expectations over the positive expectations. policies which directly lead to Lari depre- Lari's future and says the “I think in the medium and long-term, ciation,” Zurab Chiaberashvili, UNM Hnational currency is going to stabilize the Lari will gain value. However, it is member, stated. soon. diffi cult to make strong predictions as The economists say that the govern- However, the Lari (GEL) continues to the currency rate in Georgia is fl oating ment has too much internal debt, and is as such unable to balance expenses and income. “In this case the government should reduce administrative expenses in order to eliminate defi ciency,” said Givi Ade- ishvili, Economic Analyst of Non-Gov- National Tourism Administration Presentation in Iran ernmental Organization – Society and Banks. Some experts disapprove of the actions sented by the GNTA, the data for the BY NINO GUGUNISHVILI of the National Bank of Georgia, which 10 month period of 2016 shows that sold its Dollar reserves several times 131,026 international travellers visited before the October 8 parliamentary elec- the country from Iran, demonstrating tions. The experts suspect these actions ver 30 companies and 70 a clear increasing tendency of 494.4 % were aimed at keeping the Dollar rate representatives from dif- compared to the same period of the low in order to attract more voters. ferent sectors attended the previous year. For October alone, the The GEL began to lose its value in presentation made by the number was 10,854 visitors originating November 2014. At that time, one US Georgian National Tour- in Iran, which is 344.3% more than the dollar was equivalent to 1.75 Lari.