Page 42 - bne IntelliNews George country report Sept 2017

.
Thus, Victoria LLC and Alkernazi LLC, the two companies, were registered at the same address in Tbilisi nine days apart in 2013. Victoria was founded by Gia Adamia, whose nephew is a close friend and former classmate of Donelia's, the investigation claimed.
The farmers who have quit the industry allege that this link has resulted in government favouritism for the companies and roadblocks for everyone else, driving them out of business.
Meanwhile, one of the first foreign investors in the business, a Turkish businessman going by the name of Yildiz, said that he lost his suppliers and customers after the government introduced stricter controls and that, in 2014, he was subjected to intimidation by the finance ministry, who called him in but did not give him a reason why he was being investigated.
A letter leaked to Studio Monitor dated March 2015 appears to indicate that the Georgian agriculture ministry bent the law in order to allow Victoria LLC to keep sheep for a shorter period of time in quarantine than the legally-mandated six-month period after importing them from Armenia and before selling them to customers in Iran, Turkey and Arab countries. In the letter, Victoria LLC asked the ministry to shorten the quarantine period to one month in order for it to meet the growing demand from its customers. The National Food Agency granted the company its request, saying that it was "in the best interests of the country", though the law was never changed.
The country's new agriculture minister, Levan Davitashvili, vowed in June to tighten import and quarantine rules so that no sheep from other countries could be sold as Georgian-born, the report concluded.
9.1.4 Construction & Real estate sector news
The Trump Organisation has decided to scrap a Trump-branded real estate development venture in the Georgian beach resort of Batumi, it confirmed in a January 6 statement. The $250mn, 47-storey property is being developed by Georgia's Silk Road Group. President-elect Donald Trump himself signed the licensing agreement for the building in 2011.
The decision to withdraw from involvement in the Batumi development comes following the holding's December announcement that it w ould scrap a similar development venture in neighbouring Azerbaijan, and subsequent to Alan Garten, the organisation's general counsel, indicating that the group was set to make the same move in Georgia.
The organisation has sought to distance itself from some of its more controversial partnerships in countries like Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan in recent months, to protect the incoming president against criticism over possible conflicts of interest and for having selected foreign partners suspected of corruption.
“[The parties] jointly announce their decision to formally end the development of Trump Tower, Batumi, ... under the licence agreement executed in March 2011,” read the statement on the Georgian cancellation.
42 GEORGIA Country Report September 2017 www.intellinews.com