Government to Launch Large-Scale Employment Program in March
By Khatia Bzhalava
Tuesday, February 15, 2022
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced at the government meeting on Monday that the Georgian government will launch a large-scale employment program focusing on employing socially vulnerable citizens who are fit for work. According to Garibashvili, the program will be launched on March 1 and more than 200,000 people will benefit from it.
As Garibashvili noted, the initiative is designed to create public workplaces in Georgia, to employ socially vulnerable, employable citizens. The program will be led by the newly appointed economy minister Levan Davitashvili, and be based on European standards.
The PM emphasized that providing socially vulnerable people with jobs will not cause the termination of social assistance, noting that the families of beneficiaries will, for 4 years, receive their assistance.
“Our Government seeks to reduce poverty and create jobs. We must change the social policy, and we know that the way to tackle poverty is to create new jobs, the reason why we must launch an active employment policy this year. This will be our main task and concern,” the PM noted.
As he stressed, of the 600,000 socially vulnerable people, 200,000 are employable, noting that it is necessary for the well-being of each family, and for the country's development, to engage them in economic processes. According to the Prime Minister, what employable citizens need is employment and self-realization, not social welfare.
Garibashvili noted that at the initial stage, municipalities, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, and other Ministries, will mobilize about 50,000 job offers. The program will be implemented by the State Employment Support Agency, and beneficiaries will be able to choose between public works and vacancies offered in the labor market in line with their skills, experience, and professional development.
As the PM stated, this large-scale public works program is expected to be a major step toward overcoming poverty.
