Jorbenadze trying to burst through

Emzar Jgerenaia

As far as we can see, Cabinet Ministers has settled on the orbit of the future. Yet, the economy and social environment of the country remind of dry Australian woods with fires breaking out here or there; the ministers like firemen worry about their territories only.

There has long been some talk in Georgia about coordination, but nothing came of it. Dream about a team has remained a dream. Besides, there is a constant struggle with the fires; we form commissions for issuing laws, we perform reforms…
Strange enough, but every minister “is worried” by his problems. Yet, there is no way out of this dead end. Tax minister blames frontier guards of being unable to defend the borders. The frontier guards complain that the treasury does not assign enough funds for them. National treasury and minister of finance complain that revenues do not come from the Tax Ministry. The latter complains that the production and economy do not function. Representatives of production and economy, in their turn, blame useless laws and the government, and so on and so forth.
The new minister who is well aware of this exclusive circle is thinking of breaking it. He knows more than anyone else that breaking this cycle is no easy thing.
First, it is important to strengthen minister’s mandate and status because many ministers treat it with disrespect.
Secondly, there is no mechanism for coordinating ministers’ activities because ministers are governed both by the Chancellery and the Parliament. It is difficult to find common with everybody in the conditions of the existing unbalanced, multipolar political establishment.
Third, there is no time for the different branches of the executive power to create a single economic strategy and an appropriate normative basis and to further develop the mechanism of putting it into execution. Ministers go from sessions to sessions, smother local fires. They leave these nonsensical sessions at 3 a.m. and come back to work in the morning without having a good night’s sleep. The staff of ministries is still unable to function in spite of the Parliament’s “reforms”. All doctrines and programs are five years old, “steady rise”, “entering into the Euro Union”, etc. Nothing concrete. Jorbenadze is trying to break the exclusive cycle, to change something. He seems to have unwavering purposes and firm will.
In 19 January 2002 he passed a decree about forming a “Council of experts on economic issues”. Members of the council are scientific economists V.Papava, R. Gogokhidze, J. Meskhia, G. Tsereteli, A. Silagadze, E. Mekvabishvili, E. Jgerenaia, A. Tvalchrelidze, experts: George Loladze, David Gelashvili, Gela Khanishvili, Niko Orvelashvili; journalists; Anna Mirotadze, Revaz Sakeravishvili, George Kalandadze, Mari Tsikelashvili.
The style of the Councils’ work consists in offering new ideas as well as in the analysis and expertise of offers developed by the ministers.
The most important thing is creation of short-term (three year) plan of economic development.
The state minister tries to treat the ill economic. He understands that first we must clear out the exact diagnosis. Then, we will be able to understand what we really aim at. It will be as difficult as breaking the Antarctic ice. Yet, Jorbenadze is not to be turned aside…There is no harm in trying to do it…
P.S. The editorial office of “Macro-Micro Economics” will highlight the details of the Councils’ activities.