Economic Freedom Act criticised

The Economic Freedom Act proposed by President Saakashvili has been heavily criticised by National Forum economic analyst Niko Orvelashvili. He says the proposal is a Presidential PR stunt designed to neutralise the negative impact of the Tagliavini report. Orvelashvili thinks that implementation of this act could be dangerous for the country.

In this initiative Saakashvili proposed decreasing the power of his administration. According to Orvelashvili, the Government wants to limit the levers which can be used to regulate the economy, which could maintain the country’s macroeconomic stability and create an appropriate commercial environment. Orvelashvili also expresses his concern that the adoption of such a law will create obstacles when the Saakashvili administration ends and the properties and privileges Saakashvili supporters currently enjoy are rescinded.

Orvelashvili also enumerated several promises which have not been fulfilled by the current administration, such as guaranteeing the independence of the court system, including foreign judges in this system, cleaning up the arbitration system, protecting businessmen from the tax administration’s illegal pressure, enabling access to cheap loans countrywide, increasing the minimum pension to 100 dollars and so on.

Orvelashvili highlighted that the most important thing today is the protection of private property as the shortcomings in this direction have deterred investors. He also insisted that the country should not only seek foreign investors but encourage the return to the country of Georgians who have left, and can mobilise up to 2 billion in investment resources.