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The News in Brief

Thursday, May 5
Border Crossing Procedures to be simplified

Border crossing procedures will be simplified by the Georgian government.

The Prime Minister of Georgia made the pledge at a press conference, held with the representative of the International Financial Corporation Tomas Lubek, in a major Tbilisi hotel on May 04.

“After the opening of Sarphi custom house, border crossing was importantly simplified between Turkey and Georgia. We are going to do same with Armenia and Azerbaijan. The appropriate agreement is already settled, but we have not taken any concrete steps regarding the issue yet” – Nika Gilauri said.

The international conference of "The Tax System for Micro and Small Enterprises" is held in Tbilisi. (Prime-News)



Inflation Significantly Decreased In April

Overall inflation in Georgia was at 13.5% in April, a huge improvement on the previous month when it stood at 19.9%.

According to “Saqstat”, monthly inflation decreased significantly in April, the sharpest reduction since July 2010

Inflation is still high and this is mainly attributed to rising oil and food prices.

“We are looking forward and anticipate that inflation will decrease from June together with stabilization of oil and food prices” – regional representative of International Monetary Fund Eduard Gardner stated about it on May 04.

Prices on food and non-alcoholic drinks increased 28.6% making its share in total annual inflation 11.9% in March of last year.

Prices on fruits increased 70.6% in April; vegetables – 36.4%; food oil – 34.5%; bread and other wheat products – 25.8% and meat - 23.3%.

According to “Saqstat”, oil prices increased 21.7% in comparison with last year’s index. (Prime-News)



Background Radiation is Normal in Georgia

The background radiation level was declared as normal in Georgia after radiation safety specialists of the Ministry of Environmental Protection checked the radiation level on vehicles acquired from Japan with the newest types of detectors. Head of the Ministry monitoring department Marina Arabidze says that background radiation is normal and poses no health risk.

The Ministry informs that Georgia is the centre of the region providing Central Asian countries with vehicles. Most of the export cars are brought from Japan and control over the cargoes that enter from Japan is strict. There has not been any increased background radiation detected from the vehicles.

Air gamma radiation is measured daily throughout Georgia by 13 meteorological stations.

Specialists of the National Agency of the Ministry of Environmental Protection will keep on regularly checking quality of air pollution and background radiation. (Interpressnews)



Blackberry Services will become more accessible for Georgia.

As Prime-News was informed from the Ministry of Economic and Sustainable Development of Georgia, the Ministry has launched negotiations on problems and prospects of Blackberry services in Georgia with the company in February.

After the negotiations, more and more Blackberry services will become accessible to Georgian consumers.

“Blackberry Application World” service was already inserted and the service gives consumers a chance to install valuable and free programs from the Blackberry internet store.

Supporting the Georgian language is planned in the operative system of Blackberry in the near future and a digital map of Georgia will also be presented for users of Blackberry.

Regional event – “Blackberry Developer Days” is also planned to arrange together with the Ministry of Economic and Sustainable Development of Georgia. (Prime-News)