A meeting of the Economic Council was held and led by Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia at the Government Administration.
Council members reviewed the positive economic trends in the country at the meeting held within the Government Administration. They discussed the priority directions of the State Budget in 2024.
The housing for homeless families with multiple children was discussed at the council meeting. According to the Prime Minister, the Government of Georgia will buy apartments for about 1000 such families. The Head of the Government was briefed about a specific plan from the Minister of Health regarding the referred issue. It was noted that the program will start from next year and 50 MLN GEL will be spent in total.
New programs of the Enterprise Georgia were discussed at the meeting for business support, including the microloan program, which will lead to the increased access to finance for micro- and small entrepreneurs.
The Head of Government of Georgia heard a report on the privatization of state property at the meeting of the Economic Council. It was noted that as of today 180 000 000 GEL worth of state property has been privatized, out of which 121 445 138 GEL has already been mobilised in the Central Budget.
The topic of capital market promotion was discussed at the Economic Council. In particular, companies issuing securities for those companies that successfully place their securities on the capital market will be able to recover part of the costs related to the issuance of securities. They also discussed the so-called private capital. Issues of establishing a private equity investment fund, through which small and medium-sized companies will have the opportunity to use alternative sources for financing were reviewed.
At the meeting, the Head of Government of Georgia heard the interim information about the development of the spatial planning. It was mentioned that an international consulting consortium is being selected to develop the spatial planning of Georgia. At the expression of interest, 19 applications were submitted, from which the 5 best bids were selected and the winner will be announced by the end of 2023.
The members of the Economic Council discussed the reform initiative of state enterprises. It was noted that in December 2022, a strategy of comprehensive reform was adopted in view of the state enterprises of Georgia for 2023-2026. Work is currently underway on the draft law, the initial version of which has been developed and discussions with stakeholders are in progress.
The results of CFD auctions and the ongoing process of announcing a new auction were discussed at the session today.
The first auction announced for 300 MW of installed capacity has already been conducted within the framework of the support scheme.
In the near future, it is planned to announce the second phase of the capacity auction, probably for the volume of 600 MW, within the framework of which applications will be received for hydro power plants (HPP), wind and solar power plants.
