Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Some 910 million lari (about $548 million) will be allocated for Georgian infrastructure projects in 2013, Regional Development and Infrastructure Minister David Narmania told reporters on Wednesday, according to Azerbaijani news agency Trend.

"This year will be full of different projects," Narmania said.

He said that 501 million lari of the amount will be spent to reconstruct roads and build highways, 130 million lari to rehabilitate the water supply system in 25 municipalities and 180 million lari will be directed to holding events of the Municipal Development Fund in the country's regions.

According to Narmania, his ministry's real budget spending amounted to 720 million lari in 2012.

He also noted that projects aimed at improving governance are planned this year, primarily focusing on the development of a geographic information system to cover all infrastructure projects and their status.

"This will facilitate our project management," he said. "In 2013 we will finalize the methodology of priority selection and efficiency and quality of these projects will be increased through strengthening financial audit on the one hand, and control of National Bureau of Expertise named after Samkharauli over the quality of infrastructure projects, on the other. It is also important to note that a territorial reform starts this year."

Narmania also stressed that the ministry is closely collaborating with the parliamentary committees on legal affairs and on self-government. Also, an advisory board of non-governmental organizations which was established defined the strategy for 2013.

He added that work on a package of legislative amendments will begin in February.

Meanwhile, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili criticized the new government, saying that several major investment projects have been disrupted, even resulting in many people losing their jobs.

Saakashvili expressed his dissatisfaction to journalists over the suspension of a project on building a hotel in the center of the capital Tbilisi that was expected to employ 20,000 Georgian citizens.

"Besides, construction of a hydroelectric power plant was to start in Hobistskali on January 1," the president continued. "Unfortunately, I was informed that this project was suspended as well. Construction of a new runway at the Tbilisi airport that we started a few months ago has also been halted. If the mentioned construction work is not brought to an end, Georgia will lose hundreds of thousands of tourists, meaning that our citizens will lose income. The HPP in Hobistskali was to create an additional 10,000 jobs. In a nutshell, over the holidays I learned that several thousand citizens have lost their jobs."