The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 10 May 2006. The Agenda consisted of 28 items.
At the beginning of the Meeting, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili showed the audience the falsified Georgian wine brands of Kingmarauli, Svanjara and Khvanjvara that had been purchased in supermarkets during his visit to the Baltic States. As the President said, the first two were bottled in Bulgaria. Besides, the Spanish analogue was a white wine, having no bearing to Khvanchkara.
The President of Georgia said that the store counters in European countries were filled up that sort of "Georgian wines". The products sold well and their manufacturers pulled a lot of profit. The President said that it happened due to indifferent attitude to the sector on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia and the heads of the organizations of winemakers. As a result, while foreign winemakers were successfully developing the European market with falsified Georgian brands, the genuine Georgian wines of Khvanchkara, Kindzmarauli and Saperavi were going sick in basements.
After that, the President of Georgia said: some Georgian winemakers are accusing the Government of Georgia for losing the Russian market and looking for mythic European markets. In the conversations with the managers of supermarkets it turned out that they are waiting for the Georgian winemakers to supply genuine Georgian wines to their trade networks. However, despite the efforts of the Georgian Government to provide held in a variety of ways, there seems no progress to this end.
The President of Georgia believes that unjustified sale of Georgian wine production license amounts to betrayal. However, he believes that no one has the right to engage in the falsified production of such a scale. This is a serious gap in the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Justice, as falsification actions must have been filed in each particular case.
The President of Georgia underscored that the Government of Georgia would remain committed to supporting the development of the winemaking sector in Georgia and assist winegrowers and winemakers in every way but winemakers in their turn had to make an effort and rise to the challenges jointly with the state.
The President of Georgia asked the top executive officials of Georgia to once again meet all the entrepreneurs and engage in a detailed discussion over the situation.
The President of Georgia enquired about the problems related to the import of sausages by Schirnhoffer, an Austrian company.
Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli reported to the President that the Government had clarified the matter and Schirnhoffer, no longer had problems in importing its products. As for the causes of the problems, the Prime Minister of Georgia pointed out that they would be studied in detail and the subsequent decisions would be reported to the President.
The President said: Georgia is a country open to business with one of the lowest corruption levels among more than 50 countries in Europe. Georgia has of the lowest taxes in Europe and now we are trying to have the lowest taxes of all. The licensing requirements are also fewest with us. Therefore, any case of hampering the development of any particular business must become a subject of special scrutiny. Our business environment must be so free and liberal as to have no competitor at all, at least within our region.
The fact that we are enjoying economic growth is the result of the adequate conditions that have created for it. It is my categorical request that you allow no single case whatsoever of creating artificial problems to any particular, even the smallest business. This is about not only large businessmen but foreigners as well. All the entrepreneurs, no matter how small, must have confidence that there is no official who can create problems to any business. We have put this behind; this is our pride and God forbid any negative recurrence of it to any business. This is the severest order, instruction that I will personally follow up on and personally study such issues to the end.
The President of Georgia enquired about the Georgian citizen arrested in Dubai.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ivane Merabishvili briefed the President exhaustively on Shakro Kalashov, the Georgian citizen arrested in Dubai, who, as it turned out, had obtained Russian citizenship as well.
The President of Georgia congratulated the staff members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia on their successful campaign against the criminal world and called on for close cooperation with the international law-enforcement organizations.
Press Center of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia