Kobakhidze Opens Cabinet Session With Basketball Bonus and Policy Updates
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
The Georgian Dream government returned from its summer break on Monday, with its Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze using the first cabinet session to both reward the country's athletes and showcase the administration's recent record.
The meeting came a day after Georgia's basketball team stunned France to advance to the EuroBasket quarterfinals. Kobakhidze hailed the result as a milestone and promised the players GEL 3 million. He said the same amount would be awarded for each additional win.
Kobakhidze highlighted a January-July growth rate of 8 percent, saying Georgia is outpacing both regional peers and many European states. He pointed to the IMF's upgraded growth projection of 7.2 percent, while insisting the country is likely to surpass that. He also praised the national currency's stability and cited a USD 1.3 billion boost in foreign reserves earlier this year.
On government restructuring, Kobakhidze defended recent dismissals in the foreign affairs and defense ministries. Critics have described the shake-ups as politically driven, but he presented them as cost-saving measures, claiming GEL 2 million was saved at the Foreign Ministry and more than GEL 6 million at Defense. "This optimization," he argued, "will support ministries in further improving their efficiency."
The prime minister devoted much of his address to law enforcement. He said 156 people were charged with drug trafficking and 226 with possession over the past three months, stressing that drug circulation had dropped sharply. "We had alarming tendencies in consumption and distribution," he said. "Decisive measures were needed."
He reported 57 prosecutions linked to the "Thieves' World" network, far above last year's figures, and said 384 illegal weapons cases were recorded in the same period. On migration, he noted that expulsions of foreign citizens in recent months nearly matched the entire total from last year.
According to Kobakhidze, fraud, robbery, and extortion have all seen double-digit declines, while the crime clearance rate has reached 63 percent. He praised the Interior Ministry's work and announced that Interior Minister Geka Geladze and his deputy would receive promotions to the rank of police major general from President Mikheil Kavelashvili.
