Irakli Kobakhidze stated that he takes full responsibility for any agreement concluded with his participation if corruption risks emerge within it. Therefore, the public must immediately receive comprehensive answers to all existing questions regarding the deal signed with the Arab company; otherwise, there are reasonable suspicions that we are dealing either with complete incompetence or with unhealthy, corruption-related motives — writes Badri Japaridze, one of the leaders of “Strong Georgia – Lelo,” on Facebook.

According to Japaridze, the deal signed by the “Georgian Dream” government with the Arab company is not transparent.

“Based on the information currently available to us, we can state unequivocally that the agreement signed between the ‘Georgian Dream’ government and the Arab company Eagle Hills is extremely non-transparent, unprofitable for the country, and carries many risks.

As representatives of ‘Georgian Dream’ announced, the Georgian side will receive 33% of the joint company created together with the Arabs, and in exchange, Georgia will contribute highly valuable land plots to this joint enterprise. These include the Krtsanisi forest-park area and a land plot in Gonio — in total, around 9 million square meters.

A simple arithmetic calculation shows that if the Georgian side’s contribution — that is, these land plots — is valued at 600 million USD, then the other side, the Arab investors, should in turn contribute 1.2 billion USD in cash as the founding capital of the joint company.

It has not been stated anywhere, nor is it known, whether the Arab side is contributing this 1.2 billion USD immediately or over a certain period of time and in what tranches. It is also unclear what income this joint company is expected to generate and why it was considered more beneficial for our state to take business risks and plan to receive the land’s value from future revenues, rather than to sell this land now through an auction and direct the cash proceeds immediately to the state budget,” Japaridze writes.

He further explains that using the Krtsanisi forest-park area for the type of construction being discussed would seriously damage Tbilisi’s ecological environment and deprive it of an important green zone.

“An impartial analysis shows that it would have been far more advantageous for the Georgian side if the land plot in Gonio had been sold transparently through a well-prepared auction. Such a sale would have attracted many significant investors, and in exchange, the state would have received a substantial amount of money that could be used for implementing strategic projects.

Under the terms of the agreement announced by the ‘Georgian Dream’ government, the only way for the state to receive the value of the land it contributed to the joint enterprise is through future dividends from that company — the probable amount and timing of which are not known to the public.

It is unclear what calculations underpin the forecast for dividend distribution, or whether such calculations even exist.

It must also be taken into account that the Georgian side will be a minority partner, while the Arab side will hold two-thirds of the joint company and, accordingly, have the right to make all major decisions — including those concerning capital increases and dividend distributions.

I will repeat once more: for the reasons listed above, it still remains unclear whether it was worth contributing this highly liquid land to a joint enterprise with the Arab side in exchange for potential future dividends, instead of selling it now through an auction.

Irakli Kobakhidze stated that he will take responsibility for any deal concluded with his participation if corruption risks emerge within it. Therefore, the public must now receive comprehensive answers to all existing questions regarding the deal signed with the Arab company; otherwise, there are reasonable suspicions that we are dealing either with total incompetence or with unhealthy, corruption-related motives.

In either case, the result is the same — significant damage to the interests of our country and our citizen!” writes Badri Japaridze.