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Compiled by Londa Mindiashvili
Tuesday, July 21
Israeli businessman wants to build factories in Georgia

Akhali Taoba reports that Lasha Zhvania, the Minister of Economic Development, met Gideon Siterman, an Israeli businessman, on July 19.

Siterman came to Georgia a few days ago and is interested in building marble processing factories. The businessman has already seen fossil layers in Bolnisi and Chiatura. Experts will soon visit Georgia and examine the possibility of building these factories.

Zhvania told journalists that building factories means creating more jobs and the products created with processed fossils will be exported. Siterman is also interested in building a recycling factory, which would be very important for protecting the environment.



Alliance for Georgia will send another appeal to Joseph Biden

Akhali Taoba reports that the Alliance for Georgia will send another appeal to Joseph Biden, the Vice President of the United States, after his visit to Georgia. Alliance member Mamuka Katsitadze told journalists that the Alliance has not agreed with the rest of the opposition about the form of this appeal so it will work on the appeal on its own. The main issue it raises will be the necessity of strengthening the principles of democracy.

“We have already sent an appeal to Joseph Biden and we plan to send another after his visit to Georgia. We are not supporters of the idea of appealing to Biden at a protest rally and we do not expect that enough people will come to the protest action which will coincide with his visit. There are different opinions about the form the appeal should take but I don’t think this is a problem. The most important thing is that we have the same views about how to resolve the problems of our country,” Katsitadze said.



Companies are not being allowed to advertise on Maestro TV, says Ghlonti

Versia writes that the Director of Maestro TV Mamuka Ghlonti has said: “Maestro TV asked for a licence and has been given one. This is not an achievement of Saakashvili or Gachechiladze. We try to give true and full information to international organisations and that is why we were given our licence.

“Unfortunately, almost every company we have approached has told us that they are not being allowed to advertise on Maestro TV. Our broadcasts to Rustavi and Akhmeta have been blocked. We plan to establish an information channel which will broadcast 24 hours a day, but satellite broadcasting in this situation will be very difficult.

There is no TV Company like CNN in Georgia, and it would be a good thing if there were. We are not oriented on politics; we will mostly report news from foreign countries, sport and cultural news. We have decided to refrain from buying films, organising shows or arranging concerts. We will expend our energy making information programmes profitable for business and our country.

“If I ran an entertainment TV Company they [the Government] would finance the programmes and give me four times more money than I demanded, a mutual friend of the Government and myself has told me. Instead they seek to keep us silent.

“When we negotiated with Zurab Noghaideli we were looking for investors. Noghaideli offered me 6 million for 76 % of this company. It turned out that he wanted to take control of the media, but I would not let him do it because I prefer to be honest with my conscience and my people,” said Ghlonti.