Tbilisi, Georgia (Ports Europe) May 3, 2024 – Eugene Rhuggenaath, the Executive Director of the World Bank EDS 19, has visited Georgia to discuss cooperation and economic developments.
The Office of the Executive Director represents in the World Bank Group Board the constituency of Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Montenegro, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Romania and Ukraine (EDS19).
Georgian Economy Minister Levan Davitashvili and Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili met with Rhuggenaath, the Executive Director of the World Bank, to discuss cooperation between the sides and Georgia’s progress in economic growth and improvement of its fiscal parameters.
In the meeting with Georgian Economy Minister Davitashvili, the two officials discussed economic trends and forecasts of Georgia and the wider region, World Bank’s ongoing and planned projects in the country and the importance of infrastructure initiatives like the troubled Anaklia deepsea port in the Black Sea and the Black Sea submarine cable international project.
Ports Europe has an extensive news archive on the Anaklia deep sea port project.
Rhuggenaath also met the country’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.
EU relations
On 8 November 2023, the European Commission issued an official recommendation to grant candidate status to Georgia, which was confirmed on 14 December 2023.
However, last Sunday, thousands of Georgians marched through the capital, Tbilisi. They were protesting against a government bill on “foreign agents” that the country’s opposition and Western countries have said is authoritarian and Russian-inspired. The bill would require organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as “foreign agents”.
Georgian security forces responded with water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades. Georgian President, Salome Zourabichvili, an opponent of the government whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said on X (ex-Twitter) the crackdown had been “totally unwarranted, unprovoked and out of proportion”.
Today, both the European Union (EU) and the United States strongly criticised legislation making its way through Georgia’s parliament. It is becoming a crucial issue in determining whether Georgia moves towards closer relations with the EU or back into the orbit of Soviet-era Moscow.
Currently, the government wants to implement the new legislation and, at the same time, become a transport hub on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, Middle Corridor). This is a growing regional trading corridor which has the key benefit of not passing through Russian territory.
The EU actively supports this corridor but will not respond well to the political drift towards Moscow and President Putin.
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