According to Levan Davitashvili, socially vulnerable citizens capable of work will be able to choose the type of job when special employment program is launched

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Environment and Agriculture Levan Davitashvili, a socially vulnerable citizen capable of work will be able to choose the type of job when a special employment program is launched.

As he told reporters, the government's economic team and the Ministry of Health will work with specialists to develop this program.

"Several ministries and a government team will work with the specialists on this program. Mainly employees of the Ministry of Health will be represented here, other members of the economic team will also be involved, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture. By the end of the year, we will have a model that really responds to the interests of the population. This initiative involves the activation of the population capable of work, their involvement in public activities, whose social conditions need to be improved. To what extent can this be an alternative to social assistance? - Whatever income these people receive with this status, their income should increase, new opportunities should appear. Of course, along with work, we need to improve our skills, activate people capable of work, and we have 200-250 thousand such people. It is also important for the development of the economy. We saw that there was a shortage of many jobs, such as the private sector, agriculture, manufacturing, construction. Under this initiative, of course, we must be able to create new jobs. Many jobs can be created in the direction of our ministry. This is related to better forest care, protection of protected areas. Where there is always a shortage of labor. The main condition is that the social condition of these people should be improved and should not deteriorate. Their income should, at a minimum, increase. However, we also have a lot of work to do to create these new jobs, which will be at both the municipal public level and the private sector. Finally, we have to get an army of 200,000 people who must contribute to the development of the country's economy", - Davitashvili said.

According to Davitashvili, if people have risks, expectations and fears that social assistance may be terminated if they are temporarily employed, guarantees should be given that this will not happen.

For the record, at today's government session, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili stated that instead of social assistance, the government should offer jobs to citizens capable of work.

"Instead of social assistance, we should offer jobs to citizens capable of work. We have started working on this and in the next few weeks we will present to the public an already proven program experienced in successful European countries", - said Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili at a government meeting.

According to the Prime Minister, there are currently about 600,000 socially vulnerable citizens, about half of whom are capable of work but are not motivated to look for jobs due to existing social policies.