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Tuesday, October 23, 2007, #202 (1469)
The ruling party is dismissing as unfeasible a law drawn up by the New Rights opposition party to combat a demographic ‘crisis’ in Georgia. The government’s objections are over the cost and the proposal that the Georgian Orthodox Church oversee the law’s implementation. Some analyses show Georgia facing a demographic disaster, calculating a population drop from around 4.5 million now to 2.1 million people by 2050 at current trends. Last month, the New Rights highlighted the issue and proposed government incentives for citizens to have more children. The law would give families with three children GEL 300 per month, increasing the sum by GEL 100 per month for every child after that, according to the newspaper Akhali Taoba. The ruling party objected to the estimated cost, GEL 367.4 million per year. The New Rights proposed paying for the program by cutting defense spending. The ruling party also argued that the state auditing agency would not be able to properly monitor the project if it is carried out by the Orthodox Church. |
Government rejects proposal to fight demographic ‘crisis’