The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 15 March 2006. The Agenda consisted of 41 items.
At the beginning of the Meeting, Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli focused the attention of those present on the 14-15 March official visit of President of the Republic of Turkey Ahmet Nejdet Sezer in Georgia. He highly acclaimed the talks held within the framework of the visit, saying that a very important agreement on the joint operation of Batumi Airport had been signed and the joint operation of the airport would start right after the airport reconstruction works had been completed at the end of the year. For Turkey, that would in fact be a domestic flight that would significantly increase the tourism potential of Ajara and foster the economic development of the region. The Prime Minister underscored the fact that the economic relations of Georgia with Turkey were developing intensively and the interest of Turkish companies and Turkish businessmen in investing in Georgia, including in the energy sector and other sectors, had grown lately, that was very important.
Among foreign policy issues, the Prime Minister of Georgia singled out the successful negotiations with the European Union held the week before. He said that they had progressed quite forward and, in fact, the negotiations on the European Neighbourhood Policy were in the completion phase. Besides, the fact that the NATO representatives had highly appreciated the successful implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan was very important for the Government of Georgia.
The Prime Minister of Georgia informed the audience that from that day the Government of Georgia was starting work on the budgets of 2007 and of the following three years. He said that they were already working on the medium-term budget perspective introduced the year before. It was very important that they were starting the process in a timely manner and they had to conduct it intensively. He touched upon the issues related to budgeting, and said that they were working in coordination with the customs authorities of the European Union and other countries to obtain the actual information, and it made no sense for importers to distort facts when crossing the border. Besides, the Prime Minister said that the individual property tax would be institutionalized and there would be no point in the tax evasion in this area, either.
The Prime Minister of Georgia pointed out that on 17 March he was traveling to Ajara, the coast of had attracted hurricane twice that year, as a result of which the coastline in Khelvachauri and Kobuleti Regions had been badly damaged. He said that after the situation had been assessed on site, they must develop a coastline rehabilitation or maintenance plan to make sure that the huge tourism potential that was available in Ajara was made best use of.
Press Center of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia