On November 4, 2011 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 70 items.
Before the meeting started, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Nika Gilauri, talked about the World Trade Organization and International Wine Festival held at Hong Kong. We present the Prime Minister's speech:
"I would like to draw the attention of members of the government and the public to two issues: first - the World Trade Organization, negotiations between Georgia and Russia. These negotiations have been in progress for several years. We had very specific requirements and it is pleasant that the document presented by Swiss party reflects and considers these requirements. I would like to dwell on some of them: first one is international observers. The third international observer shall be Switzerland that will control and monitor trading. The second and very important part of the abovementioned document is the uniform trade regime between the whole territory of Georgia and Russia. There shall not be different trade regimes between the occupied territories and other part of Georgia and Russia. No. The document emphasizes the uniformity of trade regime between the whole territory of Georgia and Russia. The third is information which we have not had so far. This is the information about the type of trade between the occupied territories of Georgia and Russia. This information shall be fully provided to Georgian party. Such type of information is very important with a view to safety as well.
Our requirements laid down during negotiations are considered in the document of Swiss party. The document was agreed on by Russian party yesterday evening, according to the President of Russia. This document is a step forward.
The second important issue I would like to touch upon is a Hong Kong Wine Festival. There were more than 8 thousand wines presented at the festival from which 37 were Georgian. It is very important that this is the first great victory. So far, we have obtained gold medals in freestyle wrestling only, now we have similar success with respect to wine. Georgian wines obtained 17 bronze, 1 silver and 2 gold medals. From 20 grand prizes, one grand prize was awarded to Saperavi of 2006 aged in oak barrel of Kindzmarauli Marani.
This is the first step to China and Asia markets, the first most important step. This Hong Kong Wine Festival is the largest scaled in all over Asia.
Hong Kong Wine Exchange in China is the greatest mechanism to place wine on Chinese market. The greatest quantity of wine gets to China from Hong Kong. Accordingly, this is 100th of thousands if not millions of new users. Billions of dollars will flow to Georgia; this means very many new jobs created in agriculture of Georgia.
This victory means that Chinese companies will come to Georgia, more wine will be exported, there will be more distributors in Georgia and new agreements will be signed, more wine will be sold and more jobs will be created in agriculture of Georgia.
I would like to congratulate once more Kindzmarauli Gvinis Marani on this victory and wish success not only to it but also Georgian wine in the world market.
The Press Service of the Prime Minister