on May 29, 2017, BEC initiated a new program – Economic Barometer for MPs, in cooperation with Sector Economy and Budget and Finance Committees and with support of Crystal Fund, to discuss the main macroeconomic trends and forecasts of Georgia in the public and private dialogue format.
Welcome speeches were given by the: Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee Mr. Irakli Kovzanadze; Chairman of the Sector Economy and Economic Policy Committee Mr. Roman Kakulia and Executive Director of BEC Ms. Natia Katsiashvili.
Mr. Roman Kakulia, mentioned the challenges faced by the Parliament in terms of public-private dialogue and emphasized the importance of the new PPD format.
We are having a very important meeting today. It is very important that the business representatives talk about engagement themselves. The main thing is that businesses should have a feeling that their involvement is an increasing process and this is the aim of our meeting today. In general, the current practice of discussing the draft laws needs to be improved. I think the Parliament should have its format for consultations with private sector. There is no legislative initiative where private and public interests are not crossed and confronted. When there is a confrontation, it means that any party should compromise and the logic of the compromise should be visible and understandable to everyone. This exactly is the parliamentary involvement
The importance of the Parliamentary public-private dialogue platform was also emphasized by Mr. Irakli Kovzanadze.
Open and business-oriented dialogue between public and private sector is very important and relevant when it deals with the economic situation, challenges and perspectives of the country, macroeconomic analysis, assessments and prognosis. Moreover, we can say directly that dilettantism prevails in this sphere and there is a subjective, biased assessment of political and personal interests
Private sector perspectives on the main macroeconomic trends and forecasts of Georgia were presented by: Business Association of Georgia, AmCham, Galt &Taggart, JSC MFO Crystal, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Finance, National Bank of Georgia, National Statistics office of Georgia and the Parliamentary Budget Office. Business and Consumer Indexes as well as the ReforMeter results – the Georgian government’s progress in implementing promised reforms were presented by the policy Institute of the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University (ISET-PI).
The event was attended by: Georgian MPs; Business Ombudsman of Georgia and the representatives of international organisations, private sector, think tanks and civil society organisations.