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Public’s perception of direction Georgia is taking most negative in almost a decade
“This rating is made up of 10 different indicators, out of which Georgia has improved its scores in eight. Therefore, the rating shows that the country continues to make progress and improve its scores,” Turnava said.
Beka Liluashvili, the Georgian PM's advisor on economic affairs, spoke about challenges that the government is actively working to solve.
“In order to evaluate weak positions, we can assess the insolvency process, which is very important for business and investment decisions. One thing is the degree of bureaucracy faced by businesses when setting up, and the other is the procedures to manage, liquidate, and exit the insolvency of an enterprise.
“We have a lot of work to do in this regard, as we have a very weak position in this part of the rating. But various legislative frameworks, such as insolvency legislation, the building code that will come into force on January 1, the business code that is being processed and the VAT automatic payment mechanism naturally will result in a better ranking position,” Liluashvili said.
The Georgian public’s perception of the direction their country is taking is at its most negative since 2010, according to a survey commissioned by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) from its local partner Caucasus Resource Research Centers.
The number of respondents who said that they thought Georgia was going in the wrong direction increased to 49% in the survey, conducted between July 13 and July 29, from 38% in December 2018. A total of 18% of respondents said they believed Georgia was moving in the right direction. That marked a 7pp decrease compared to the survey at the end of last year. Those who perceived no change amounted to 30% of respondents.
“I have a reason not to trust the NDI surveys, especially the political part,” mayor of capital city Tbilisi Kakha Kaladze told reporters when discussing the results. Kaladze, a top politician in ruling party Georgian Dream, is one of the most trusted politicians in Georgia, according to the survey.
Other politicians blamed NDI’s local partner for the portrayed sentiment, with the results coming as Georgia approaches the general election year of 2020.
“I would like to reiterate our respect for institutions such as NDI, IRI and other such institutions. However, unfortunately, over the years we have been able to see that their Georgian partners conducting these surveys do not always accurately reflect the real sentiments on the ground,” said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure Maia Tskitishvili.
But it is perceptions of a disappointing performance of the country’s government and not bias from the polling agency that may well be at the root of the high “wrong direction” score indicated. The strong correlation between the exchange rate and the “wrong direction” score supports such a hypothesis.
According to the survey, the number of citizens who are dissatisfied with the government's performance has increased. Some 60% of respondents said that the government’s performance was “bad” (April 2019 – 56%; December 2018 – 48%). The number of those respondents satisfied with the government performance in contrast decreased. Only 32% evaluated the government performance as “good” (April 2019 – 36%; December 2018 – 44%).
As for political preferences, Georgian Dream seems to enjoy relatively strong
11 GEORGIA Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com
