Friday, August 10- August 24, 2007, #152 (1419)

Business Roundup

Georgian Post service to establish venture for land transit to Europe
Sakartvelos Posta (Georgian Post) announced a tender for establishing a joint venture which will carry out land transit to Europe.
The agreement states the capital of the joint company should be no less than GEL 50 000, and that Georgian Post should hold no less than a 51 percent share.
The partner in the venture should provide freight collection and sorting, as well as vehicles for transportation within Georgia and abroad.
Applications will be accepted until August 13.
Currently Georgian Post it carries out land transit only within Georgian borders; transit abroad is by air, under contracts with carriers.
According to the company's data, freight worth GEL 1.03 million was transported in the first half of 2007, exceeding the 2006 figure by 3 percent.

Tender announced on Gudauri hotel complex management
JSC Gudauri (former JSC Gergeti) announced a tender to select a company to manage the hotel complex and ropeway on an alpine resort Gudauri, Kazbegi district. Applications will be accepted until the end of August. The term of management lasts to March 31, 2008.
The state owns 84.2 percent share in JSC Gudauri.
Rehabilitation works should be carried out by the end of the year. The government has allotted a credit of 6 million EUR. Credit interest is at 12 percent and should be covered by the year end.

ExpoGeorgia to host Caucasus healthcare fair October 11-13
The Caucasus Healthcare Fair 2007 will be organized by the ExpoGeorgia exhibition center. The fair presents medical technology, laboratory equipment, dentistry pharmaceuticals, optics and hospital equipment. Organizers hope that the exhibition will entice new pharmaceutical companies into the Georgian market.
Conferences, seminars and presentations will be held parallel to the exhibitions.
The Caucasus Healthcare Fair is being held under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and the Physicians Association. It is one of the first projects to be initiated by ExpoGeorgia.

Loan for Kars-Akhalkalaki railroad construction to be used on schedule
Irakli Ezugbaia, director general of Georgian Railroad LLC, said the credit allotted by Azerbaijan for the construction of the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad will be used according to the schedule of works to be implemented.
Ezugbaia said that the use of the loan will start after the winner companies of the tender are confirmed.
Marabda-Kartsakhi Railroad LLC will coordinate the allocation of the funding. According to Ramaz Giorgadze, director general of the company, the Georgian side will be able to use the first part of the Azerbaijani loan, worth USD 40 million, by the end of the year.
The total loan is worth USD 200 million.
The project envisages railroad construction from Kars (Turkey) to Akhalkalaki (Samtskhe-Javakheti region) and rehabilitation works on existing railroads to Baku (Azerbaijan). The construction should be carried out in 2008-2010.

Finance Ministry launches audit system based on risk evaluation
The Finance Ministry plans to introduce a new taxpayers' audit program-based on risk evaluation-in 2008.
While currently a decision on tax inspection in a company is made for subjective reasons, from the next year it will be based on analysis of up to 18 parameters of risk, Mindia Gadaev, head of the Finance Ministry's Revenue Service, said.
The system will increase the efficiency of auditors' work, as well as keeping a check on enterprises, the Finance Ministry notes.

GEL 4 million more for Sighnaghi rehabilitation
The local administration of Sighnaghi received GEL 4 million from the central government for the further rehabilitation of their small town, which is being made into a premier tourism destination. According to the government's plan, the second phase of the rehabilitation of Sighnaghi involves repair of the city's water and electricity infrastructure, as well as its roads. The loan will also cover the rehabilitation of a cableway.



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