Problems of land ownership

Recently the Georgian media has been covering problematic issues concerning the sale of Georgian lands to foreigners. The United National Movement (UNM), the former ruling party, had carried out an extensive campaign of privatizing and then selling the land to foreigners, which was very cheap according to world standards. This took place because the Georgian farmers were in bad need of cash money– sometimes just to survive, and foreigners were offering “good money” according to “the current Georgian standards.” Besides, there was an ill practice introduced by the previous Georgian leadership to sell state-owned plots of land to foreigners without informing the local people about their decisions. Thus, many rural residents found themselves without their land and unable to breed the cattle and therefore, unsolvable problems appeared. The UNM administration sold plots of land to Arabs, Indians, Chinese, Iranians and other nationalities in a hasty manner and the without appropriate control. The Georgian Dream coalition thinks that the country should not have anything against foreign investments, but they should be careful that that these sales do not damage the interests of local people and the country overall. As a result of the irresponsible activities of the previous administration, foreign investors face an aggressive attitude from the local people, who prevent them from cultivating the land properly. The current Georgian administration has stopped selling land to foreigners, but problems remain with the lands that have been sold already.