Ivane Matchavariani: The World Bank Welcomes Gov’t Education Reform
The Minister of Finance of Georgia Ivane Matchavariani is paying a working visit to the USA, where he is participating in the annual spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group.
Within the scope of the visit, the Minister has met Cyril Muller, Vice President of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia region, and Koen Davidse, the Executive Director of the World Bank Group.
The parties discussed the framework of the collaboration with Georgia and the priority directions. The progress of Georgia, achieved in terms of implementing new reforms also received positive evaluation. Hope, regarding the further enhancement of the close partnership between Georgian government and the World Bank was expressed at the meeting.
“The World Bank welcomes the education reform, initiated by the Georgian government. The representatives of the Bank expressed their readiness to actively engage in the process of the implementation of this reform, financially, as well as through the participation of experts. In addition, the World Bank will continue collaboration with Georgia regarding the infrastructure, particularly power engineering sector. There are impressive finances allocated by the World Bank for the next four years. In case of the education reform, this is a long-term process and it is important to have the support of a partner like the World Bank,” noted Matchavariani.
“It was pleasure meeting the Finance Minsiter Ivane Matchavariani and the delegation of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia within the format of the World Bank spring meeting. We had an interesting conversation about the priorities and the projects of the government, which are being carried out with the assistance of the World Bank. We discussed the country’s education field, where the Georgian government puts a lot of effort to improve the situation and give a chance to the country to progress. We also discussed the power engineering sector and the current economic situation of Georgia. I am glad that despite the economic hardships of the neighboring countries, Georgia continues sustainable development,” stated Cyril Muller.
“At the meeting with the Minister, we considered the aspects related to the further cooperation between Georgia and the World Bank. We expressed our satisfaction over Georgia’s progress in the direction of amelioration the business environ across the country. Georgia is on the 6th line of the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ ranking, which is certainly a very positive result. Ivane Matchavariani strongly accentuated crucial importance of the development of the human capital. Georgia is one of the first countries that has joined the Human Capital Initiative of the World Bank. The Minister focused on the large-scale education reform, which I think will firmly be supported by the Bank,” said Koen Davidse.
The World Bank is an active supporter of the ongoing reforms of Georgia. For the 25 years of collaboration, the investments worth of more than $4.3 billion have been allocated for over 100 projects of the Bank in Georgia.
Translated by Ketevan Kvaratskheliya