The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 6 September 2006. The Agenda consisted of 33 items.
At the beginning of the Meeting, Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli asked the Minister of Agriculture to brief the Government members on the progress of the vintage.
Minister of Agriculture of Georgia Mikheil Svimonishvili informed the audience as follows: the vintage started in Dedoplistskaro, Signagi and Gurjaani Regions. Five wineries were put into operation and they processed 1187 tons of grapes. The representatives of nearly 100 companies arrived in Kakheti. They are conducing talks with farmers and peasants to purchase grapes. Today, trade organizations from Kakheti have sent up to 300 tons of grapes to Tbilisi and West Georgia. 40 wineries are ready to receive and process grapes.
Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli said that the vintage would enter in an active phase in 3-4 days. He added: "on September 7 I am traveling to Kakheti to discuss with companies, the local government authorities and regional administration all the vintage issues requiring consideration and resolution. The success of the vintage this year is of critical importance, as the embargo declared by Russia has attached a political significance to it. Thus, we are acting just as it befits a state of war and all of us are mobilized," the Prime Minister of Georgia stressed.
After that, the Prime Minister of Georgia asked the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia to provide information on the fulfillment of the on-job training program.
Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia Vladimer Chipashvili informed the audience that on 1 September they started accepting applications in 10 Georgian cities. He said: the enthusiasm that our citizens show for professional training and retraining has exceeded all expectations. More than 10 thousand citizens filed applications in just 3 days. Jobs have already been found for almost half of them and 850 persons have started the retraining process. Thus, the preliminary results are quite promising.
Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli noted that a meeting with the representatives of the industrial sector would be held that day. He approved of the progress in the fulfillment of the state on-job training program, expressing hope that the process would become even more active after the Meeting and that would enable them to employ even more people in the following year.
As for employment, he said that compared with the similar period of the past year, in the eight months of the current year, the wage fund of private companies had increased by 36,7%. The change in July had been 35%, which meant that in August 3 thousand formal additional jobs had been created in Georgia. 3140 additional companies had been founded and registered. That meant new additional jobs.
The Prime Minister of Georgia said that as a result of the effective steps taken with the joint efforts of the Government of Georgia and the Management of National Bank of Georgia, the inflation rate at the end of August had accounted for 6% instead of 6.4% in July. He said that working in that direction was one of the priorities of the Government of Georgia and expressed hope that similar coordinated work would continue in the following months, too.
He also said that the tax revenues in August had exceeded a three-fold -increased budget target with 56.5 million Lari. That had turned into a trend, which marked improvement of administration as well as high economic growth rates.
Press Center of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia