Municipal Government Code Discussions

Thursday, November 14

Paata Kldiashvili, Head of the Young Economists’ Association Kutaisi Branch, and Executive Director of CiDA Zviad Devdariani

Head of the Department of Relations with Regions and Municipal Governments of the State Chancellery Irakli Melashvili; Deputy Minister of Regional Development of Georgia Tengiz Shergelashvili; Head of Young Economists’ Association Kutaisi Branch Paata Kldiashvili; Executive Director of CiDA Zviad Devdariani

Municipal Government Code Discussions at Tbilisi Marriott Hotel

At the Tbilisi Marriot Hotel on November 12th, the Georgian Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure unveiled the new municipal governance code to regional mass media representatives and NGOs.

Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure David Narmania; Deputy Minister of Regional Development of Georgia Tengiz Shergelashvili and Irakli Melashvili, Head of the Department of Relations with Regions and Municipal Governments of the State Chancellery, attended the event.

Civil Society Regional Network (R-CSN), facilitated by the Civil Development Agency (CiDA) prepared recommendations regarding the code and presented them to the audience.

As a result of reforms, the number of self-governing cities will increase from 5 to 18. In the villages surrounding self-governing cities, so called communities will be established on the base of which municipalities will be formed. Municipal government officials will be elected by local residents.

Civil councils will be established in villages that will assist the real needs of locals.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development of Georgia, CiDA and Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF).

The Georgian government adopted the municipal governance code on October 30th. (CiDA)