Page 47 - GEORptJul19

However, Armenia, which borders Georgia, has good relations with both countries and offered to step in.
Russian Railways and Azerbaijan Railways have signed a memorandum on developing a co-operative strategy facilitating the creation of Eurasian transport corridors that stretch across countries including Turkey, Iran and Georgia, railway-news.com reported on May 7.
The memorandum signatories, director general and chairman of the board of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov and chairman of Azerbaijan Railways Javid Gurbanov, met in Baku.
Company policies are to be aimed at developing and operating Eurasian international transport corridors with an eye on ensuring optimal transport conditions for import, export and transit.
The companies will jointly promote freight traffic on Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia-Europe routes within the western section of the international north-south transport corridor and on the Russia-Azerbaijan-Turkey route on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars line.
Russian Railways and Azerbaijan Railways also want to develop their position as transit countries, such as between China and Azerbaijan via Russia.
The two parties reportedly said they would create a single information space using modern technology, electronic document management and cargo tracking facilities to make services more efficient.
The two parties are further expecting an agreement that will outline the development of the Samur-Yalama border infrastructure. An upgrade would increase capacity to accommodate expected traffic volumes.
The municipality of Tbilisi has a nnounced that ILF Consulting Engineers Austria has won a contract to develop an above-ground metro line to link Samgori district to the capital’s airport by converting an existing line for urban transport purposes. The contract is worth GEL 12.6mn (€4.7mn). There will be seven stations along the Samgori-Lilo-Airport line, which will be commissioned gradually over the next three years. The daily ridership is expected to be around 200,000 people.
The Austrian company is to also draft a feasibility study with technical and economic research for another line running toward Rustavi, also starting from Samgori.
“The goal of the research-design is to develop two lines of metro. In both cases the starting station is Samgori. The first indicates that the Samgori-Lilo-airport line will be modified for urban rail. The second phase of research-design includes the feasibility study for a section between Samgori and Rustavi,” Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze confirmed.
9.2.2 Healthcare corporate news
Georgian pharmaceutical company PSP Group on May 14 confirmed that it is considering acquiring the network of GEO Hospital clinics, Georgia Today wrote .
“Over the past six months, intensive negotiations have been held with GEO Hospitals management. We are considering the acquisition of clinics existing in the GEO Hospitals network for €20mn and we will provide more details about this matter to the public in the near future,” the PSP Group stated.
GEO Hospitals is a network of clinics founded in 2011. The clinics are located in five regions of Georgia: Kvemo Kartli, Imereti, Mtskhtea-mtianeti, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kakheti.
47 GEORGIA Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com