Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili (Official photo)
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has announced plans to merge a number of ministries, cutting down on the total number by four. The changes are being accompanied by a Cabinet reshuffle.
Kvirikashvili said at a 13 November press-conference that the ministries of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, sport and youth, energy, and environment will all be merged with other ministries.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Protection will have its responsibilities split between the ministries of agriculture and economy, with the latter also taking over the Ministry of Energy.
The State Ministry of Euro-Atlantic Integration will integrated into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will now be called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.
The youth component of the Ministry of Sport & Youth Affairs will be transferred to the Ministry of Education, while the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection will take over sports.
Expanded roles
With the changes, Agriculture Minister Levan Davitashvili will now take on the expanded portfolio of Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture.
Finance Minister Dimitri Kumsishvili will be appointed Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Energy, and Natural Resources, and will also serve as First Deputy Prime Minister.
The pro-rector of Tbilisi State University, Professor Mikheil Chkhenkeli will replace Aleksandre Jejelava as the Minister of Education and Science and Youth Affairs. Jejelava, the Second Deputy Prime-Minister, had occupied the post since June 2016, and in the wake of the October 2017 elections, he headed public relations policy for the government.
Mikheil Giorgadze will continue in the expanded post of Minister of Culture, Monument Protection and, Sports.
Cabinet reshuffle
Changes were also announced elsewhere in the government.
Giorgi Gakharia, Economy Minister since December 2016, will replace Giorgi Mghebrishvili as Interior Minister, also serving as a Deputy Prime Minister.
Mamuka Bakhtadze, current head of the state-owned Georgian Railway Company, will replace Gakharia as Finance Minister.
In a separate move, the Foreign Intelligence Service will merge with the State Security Service, Georgia’s domestic security agency.
The Emergency Management Agency, which has worked under the Interior Ministry, will now be placed under the State Security and Crisis Management Council. Former Interior Minister Giorgi Mghebrishvili will serve as its head directly accountable to the Prime Minister.
According to Kvirikashvili, the package of changes will be confirmed at the next cabinet meeting, and then sent to parliament to be voted on.
It is unconfirmed whether Education Minister Jejelava, Sports and Youth Minister Tariel Khechikashvili, and Environment Minister Gigla Agulashvili will stay on in government.
In Georgia’s patriarchal countryside, women are starting to take more leading roles in agriculture — but climate change threatens even the modest gains that women have made so far.
Lali Sukhitashvili inherited a number of beehives from her mother-in-law, one of the first beekeepers in the village, 14 years ago. She has worked as a beekeeper ever since.
‘My profession was maths, and bees are mathematicians too. I’m fascinated by their biology. When a lot of bees died in my first year [as a
Dozens of farmers have protested against Georgia’s lockdown measures in the town of Marneuli, in southern Georgia, claiming they have been unable to sell their agricultural products.
Farmers from several neighbouring villages in the area gathered on Wednesday in Marneuli, blocking roads and preventing lorries from passing. Protesters said that more lorries were needed to take all of their crops to market. Some dumped crops in the street as a sign of protest.
Marneuli Municipality has been q
‘I was 29 when I had to emigrate and returned 14 years later. My sister was very young when she was diagnosed with an aneurysm. The doctors told her her chances of survival were only 2%, but I really wanted even this tiny chance.’
Women in Georgia very often lack a voice of their own. Their opinions, feelings, dreams, aspirations, and achievements can be conveyed by others, often the men around them. The Women in Georgia project gives a voice to these women, allowing them to tell their own
Around 50 people blocked a federal motorway in the Russian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria on 16 March in protest against the leasing of state land to a local businessman.
Farmers blocked the road near the village of Nartan, to oppose the lease of 200 hectares of land from the Experimental Production Farm to businessman Vladimir Sekrekov. Forty hectares had already been rented to Sekrekov to be used as an apple orchard.
Zaur Kudayev, one of the protesters, told OC Media that the protest be
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has announced plans to merge a number of ministries, cutting down on the total number by four. The changes are being accompanied by a Cabinet reshuffle.
