Page 10 - GEORptDec20
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stability have no alternative! We launch together a new chapter of cooperation,” she said.
Former US ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly was quick to criticise the statement by Zourabishvili. “How can a Georgian President congratulate an agreement that locks in another Russian occupation in Caucasus and locks out the West?” he tweeted, with reference to how Russia is sending thousands of peacekeepers to guard against hostilities once more erupting like they did six weeks ago.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed the peace deal over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called the deal "incredibly painful both for me and our people".
2.6 Polls & Sociology
Georgia improves position in World Bank survey on governance
Georgia has shown an improvement in the World Bank's recently updated Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) report in terms of government effectiveness and regulatory quality.
The country received 76.92% for government effectiveness and 82.69% for regulatory quality, which assesses reforms carried out by the government for the development of the private sector.
The Worldwide Governance Indicators project reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories over the period 1996–2018, for six dimensions of governance, which are: voice and accountability (53.20% for Georgia); political stability and absence of violence (29.05%); government effectiveness (76.92%); regulatory quality (82.69%); rule of law (62.02%); and control of corruption (74.04%).
The economic advisor to the Georgian PM, Beka Liluashvili, commented on the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators research, saying that in terms of controlling corruption, Georgia is a regional leader ranked among Europe’s top 20 countries for the third time in a row, ahead of such EU member states as Spain, Cyprus, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Malta, Croat, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and the Czech Republic.
“Another important indicator is the rule of law, in which Georgia is ahead of seven NATO member states, and three EU member states, and this particular indicator is based on the final assessments by 11 leading think-tanks and the US State Department. To summarise, the country’s democratic institutions are developing irreversibly, and this process will continue,” Liluashvili said.
The survey combines the views of a large number of businesses, citizens and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. They are related to over 30 individual data sources produced by a variety of survey institutes, think-tanks, non-governmental organisations, international organisations and private sector firms.
10 GEORGIA Country Report December 2020 www.intellinews.com
