President and PM discuss issuing Eurobonds

The President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and PM Nika Gilauri discussed the details of postponing paying back of state loans, which were made possible by the issuance of Eurobonds on April 14. As Georgian officials state, loans will be repaid by 2021 instead of 2013 and more importantly the interest rate would decrease instead of increasing.

By the evaluations of the President the effective work of the government would improve the investment climate in Georgia more and would support economic growth.

“I think some very important things have been fulfilled successfully. The Government managed to postpone the state loan by a pretty significant period of time. It means that by 2013 we wouldn't have to pay the major part of this loan, giving us a chance to spend money on the development of the country and improve social-economic conditions instead of paying old loans. We really have to celebrate, because it shows huge trust from the side of international investors, especially when Greece has collapsed, Portugal has such problems, the same happens in Ireland and Iceland. The majority of investors do not trust these countries any more and in these very heavy conditions Georgia managed to successfully postpone its loans and continue to find credit resources. This is a very good job”, Saakashvili stated.

As the Prime Minister said, this loan is ten years long and it would become possible to spend rather more money on infrastructural and other projects from the state budget. During the discussion, Mikheil Saakashvili stressed his attention on the fact that in 2021, when Georgia would be much more developed, it will not be that hard for the country to pay this loan. The President compared the country to the family that can give children a good education by postponing its mortgage loan.

Gilauri considers that such trust in the market of securities would stimulate additional flow of investments in Georgia from both the Western and Eastern companies and that, accordingly, additional jobs will be created in Georgia. He also said that the country would no longer have loan repayment as a problem.

“Our evil wishers were saying: it is true that Georgia had developed, but in certain point they would have to pay the loans and it would collapse by all means. Now no one can say anything. We will not have a problem of loans any more during many years and we have all criteria for continuing the development. The social problems that we face must be solved more easily. This is exactly what the stability means and it is a right policy. Especially it concerns fighting with corruption, many had been against it and we had so many problems because of this in previous years - several times we almost had revolution. The major reason of our success is that we had abolished corruption on every level and that we had simplified business climate. We must continue like this in future as well", said the President