On June 1, in Tbilisi Marriott Hotel, International Forum INVEST IN GEORGIAN BANKING was opened. The forum was organized under the guidance of the National Agency of the Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia with the National Bank as the co-organizer. Representatives of Georgian as well as leading foreign banks were among the participants. Zurab Noghaideli, the Prime Minister of Georgia addressed the said gathering.
The prime minister of Georgia made the following comments to the journalists: "Today's meeting is projected to the international and trans-national banks.
Representatives of 20 international banks are attending the forum. We hope that they will show interest in the most growing segment of Georgian economics, which is the banking sector and will invest in this sphere. Last year we yielded rather serious results: 2 international banks entered the Georgian banking sector and the Georgian Bank was presented at the London Stock Exchange.
Participants of today's forum were the international finance institutions to emphasize that the macroeconomic policies implemented in Georgia have been highly successful. Investments amounting to 700 million dollars are on the way; these are extra investments made by the foreign banks already operating in Georgia. Of course, we do know these banks and we are in active cooperation with them."
Zurab Noghaideli responded to the ultimatum of the self-declared President of South Osetia Eduard Kokoiti who demanded removal of Dimitri Sanakoev, leader of the provisional administrative-territorial entity from his office; the prime minister stated the following on this: "Eduard Kokoiti should already have learned the lesson; it's high time he should realize that it's impossible to address the Georgian government in the language of the ultimatum. As for the water supply to the population, we'll settle this problem by all means and we are not going to abandon our population in such a complex situation."
The prime minister also touched upon the topic of Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization. Consultations concerning this issue were held in Tbilisi yesterday, yet they ended without any results. To his words, it should not have been unexpected to Russia that Georgia would not support Russia's membership in this organization in case the Russians breached the obligations recognized by them in 2004. "We demand fulfillment of the obligations taken by Russia under the bilateral agreement of 2004; it implied eradication of problems with regard to customs regulations and customs administration. It concerns illegal functioning of Gantiadi-Adler and Rocki-Qvemo Zarmagi customs check-points. Therefore, the position which was announced yesterday by Russia's representative to say that Russia will fulfill its obligations only after accession to the WTO is totally unacceptable to us. The agreement says explicitly that fulfillment of the obligations should have been started before Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization. Therefore, our position will not be unexpected to Russia. It has already been for three years that we have maintained the same position and today we're not going to change it either. Respectively, it shouldn't cause extra strain in Georgian-Russian relations."
Press Office of the Government of Georgia