Page 34 - GEORptJul22

cooperation
EU Commission increases assistance package for Eastern Partnership countries from €40mn to €75mn
Georgia signs MoU with US on 5G security
economy were discussed on March 30 in a meeting between Gharibashvili and al-Ibrahim.
The Georgian PM and the visiting minister talked about the possibility of establishing a joint economic committee for cooperation, with Gharibashvili welcoming the entry of more Saudi investors in the Georgian economy, Georgia’s government said.
During the discussions, the fast-growing nature of the tourism sector of the Georgian economy was noted, along with the visa-free travel for citizens of Saudi Arabia and the growing number of visitors from the state.
The officials also discussed the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine and the resulting security challenges in the Eastern European region, with Gharibashvili reaffirming Georgia's solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
The EU Commission has increased the assistance package for the six Eastern Partnership countries from €40mn to €75mn in order to “deploy safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines and speed up the vaccination campaigns.”
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine will receive the additional €35mn “to substantially increase access to vaccines in the Eastern Partnership region amid the global vaccine shortage.”
This assistance complements the EU's support to the Covax initiative, the world facility to ensure fair and universal access to Covid-19 vaccines and work towards an equitable and transparent distribution of vaccines over the Eastern Partner countries,” says the statement.
The EU Commission announced that €35mn comes in addition to the first package of support worth €40mn, launched in February, which aimed to “strengthen preparedness and local readiness for safe and effective vaccination of the population” in the six Eastern Partnership countries.
A Commission statement also said that the EU support includes the training of health managers and medical staff who are involved in the vaccination campaign.
Georgia and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on strengthening cooperation in fifth-generation (5G) wireless communications networks.
At the core of the MoU is a set of agreed good practices that the two sides should implement in the development of their 5G networks with a view to avoiding security risks. More specifically, the good practices are broadly interpreted as a way of banning Huawei and other companies controlled by Chinese government, defined as “malign actors”, and providing the necessary technology used by telecom operators to develop their 5G networks.
The US and Georgia emphasised a statement from the Prague 5G Security Conference – framing the “Prague Proposals” – as an important step towards developing a common approach to 5G network security, and ensuring a secure, resilient, and trustworthy 5G ecosystem. The Prague Proposals stress the need to develop, deploy, and commercialise 5G networks based on free and fair competition, transparency and the rule of law.
More specifically, under the MoU, Georgia agrees that in order to promote a vibrant and robust 5G ecosystem, “a rigorous evaluation of suppliers [of 5G hardware and software] should take into account the rule of law; the security environment; ethical supplier practices; and a supplier’s compliance with secure standards and industry best practices.”
34 GEORGIA Country Report July 2022 www.intellinews.com