On December 29, 2011 was held the meeting of the Georgian Government. The agenda included 51 items.
Before the meeting started, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Nika Gilauri, talked about 2012 budget. We present the Prime Minister's speech:
"Good day. Today, we are holding the last government meeting of the year 2011. I would like to congratulate on coming New Year to the whole Georgia in advance and wish you success; I would like to thank everyone for works carried out in the year 2011. This was not a simple year, we have had many challenges, many problems in 2011, although, I think that this was quite a successful year for Georgia. I will traditionally present an additional 2011 report to the public tomorrow, on December 30. We will have quite an extensive discussion of 2011 results with journalists. We will present the data we have about the year 2011 at this stage and I will try to answer all questions. We are completing the year 2011 with USD 14 billion Gross Domestic Product, i.e. in total, the Gross Domestic Product of the country amounts to USD 14 billion.
This amounts to about USD 3,150 per capita, which is grown by 3.3 times in comparison with 2003 figures. In 2003, Gross Domestic Product amounted to USD 920 per capita. We are planning quite a good growth next year - Gross Domestic Product will amount to USD 3,500 per capita. I would like to draw your attention to priorities of the next year. The next year budget is planned on GEL 8.5 billion, which is 11 times higher than 2003 budget of Georgia. 2012 budget of Georgia is higher than the 2003 Gross Domestic Product of Georgia.
In 2003, Gross Domestic Product of Georgia amounted to GEL 8 billion, while 2012 budget only amounts to GEL 8.5 billion. This year, Gross Domestic Product amounted to GEL 8 billion, while 2012 budget only amounts to GEL 8.5 billion. As for Gross Domestic Product, this will amount to GEL 26.5 billion. We have significant advancement and growth. As for budget priorities, I would like to point out several directions. First of them are a social field and healthcare. 29.6% of the budget will be spent on the social field and healthcare. One of the most important reforms we have planned for the next year is a pension package reform. From September 1 of the next year, all pensioners above 67 will have a pension package amounting to GEL 140. This GEL 140 will include the sum, insurance voucher and the package. Apart from this, all pensioners and all children form 0 including 5 years of age will be insured. This will be the most important reform for the next year. In total, 29.6% of the budget will be spent on this. In 2012, 20% of the budget will be spent on infrastructural projects and regional development. This includes road infrastructure, East-West Highway, Kutaisi-Zestaponi road, Kobuleti bypass road, and water infrastructure. Quite a great amount will be spent on water infrastructure within the scope of whole Georgia for the first time. The main part of a high voltage transmitting line, which is included in infrastructural projects, will be finished next year.
In comparison with this year, we have significant growth of budget sums in to directions: These are (1) education, growth of funding in education amounts to GEL 40 million; we have planned very important projects here as well and we have talked about this several times; (2) agriculture, in comparison with this year, funding will grow by 30%. We have important news in this field as well; for example, a voucher, distribution of which has been started recently. This is a new project, which we will carry out together with the Ministry of Agriculture, and we hope that this will be a successful project.
These are the main directions and goals for the year 2012. As for tomorrow, I would like to invite journalists to talk about the year 2012: what success and problems we have had, what we have done and have not been able to do. The year 2011 was not an easy although it was quite a successful year."
Prime Minister's Press Service