Press Digest 10.02.2015
No increase in salaries in the near future
More than 200 villages in today’s Georgia are uninhabited
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No increase in salaries in the near future
“Along with a steady drop in the value of GEL, income of most Georgians has decreased. However, despite this, company managers have no intention of raising salaries; allegedly, their key task today is to avoid reducing them,”- reports the Rezonansi newspaper.
The depreciation of GEL has created serious problems for every company and organization in Georgia. As founder of Geo Group Anzor Kokoladze states, due to the steep drop in GEL value, his company has lost many customers.
Devaluation of GEL has dealt a heavy blow to our business environment as well. “Our revenue has decreased, since people stopped purchasing our equipment. They simply cannot afford to buy expensive goods now. Remittances have decreased sharply as well, and this obviously has negatively affected our business as well as our people. Naturally, against this dark background, increasing salaries does not fall into our plans. This issue simply cannot be on our closest agenda now,”- declares Mr. Kokoladze.
Those at the helm of Tegeta Motors holding also rule out the possibility of raising salaries in the foreseeable future; however, they refrain from openly discussing this issue. Allegedly, they are short on information and cannot provide us with details.
A pay raise is something unrealistic for Alfa Business Group as well. “I do know this is an extremely vulnerable issue for our public; however, at this point, we don’t intend to raise our employees’ salaries”. - Company managers say.
Heads of the Georgian Railways are proud of their accomplishments, however; they define the already increased payroll fund as a breakthrough for their company and claim the necessity to change something has not surfaced yet,”- says the article.
Believe it or not, since November, when GEL started depreciating, those serving within different companies and organizations have not asked managers to raise their salaries. Despite their income having decreased recently, no one feels their pay will increase. Today our people are mainly concerned with keeping their jobs.
More than 200 villages in today’s Georgia are uninhabited
The law on highland urbanization (so-called mountain law) is expected to be discussed from March 1. The final version of the bill has not been formulated yet.
Meanwhile, more than 200 villages in the mountainous regions of Georgia have become depopulated and abandoned. In order to draft the Mountain Law, they have already formed a special commission. However, demographic expert Avtandil Sulaberidze is concerned with the fact that the commission has mainly been staffed with representatives of the government rather than professional demographic experts, sociologists and psychologists, which is why he thinks that ultimately this law will not be productive,”- reports the Rezonansi.
“We cannot compel the residents of these mountainous regions to live in a barren land that is unable to provide them with food or water. The commission is being created; however, can anyone tell me how many of its members are economists, psychologists, sociologists or demographic experts?
In any case, one thing is absolutely clear to me today – this law won’t yield any tangible results. Now they expect the EU to channel several million USD into the mountainous region development program.
By the way, do you know why they are drafting this bill now? They just want to squander this money without bringing about any positive change in our people’s lives. If they actually plan to adopt this law to pursue their own interests, we’d better create our own commission to deal with this situation,”- states Avtandil Sulaberidze.
According to Sulaberidze, more than 200 mountainous villages are uninhabited in Georgia at the moment. “No precise data has been released yet but it’s apparent that the country’s migration potential is gradually fading, since around 1.5 million Georgians have already left their homeland,”- says the expert.
As Gia Zhorzholiani, member of the Parliament’s regional policy and self-government committee claims, different versions of the bill have already been drafted and they are to be merged into one unified version next. “We have already followed through with all the necessary procedures, and the only thing we have to do now is to put the finishing touches on the bill,”- declares Zhorzholiani.
The initial mountain law was adopted in 1999; however, it has not come into effect yet. The former government did next to nothing to resolve this issue. The Nationals were convinced that they could not force people to return to the mountains. “Scotland faced a similar problem in the 1960s; it took the Scottish authorities 15 years to settle this issue, but they were eventually successful. Obviously, if a man has a stable income in his home region, he will not seek a temporary job in the city,”- claim the specialists.
