GIZ Legal Program: Report on the Effectiveness of State-Owned Enterprises

On December 25, the GIZ Legal Program in Georgia hosted the presentation of a thematic research report on the effectiveness of state-owned enterprises. Presented by the inquiry committee of GIZ Georgia, the research summed up the work done in the field, and its suggestions for future improvement.

Representatives of the World Bank, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), the State Audit Office, and private individuals, expressed their opinions on the topic during the presentation.

“The committee inquiry is considered one of the new tools for the implementation of parliamentary supervision and is carried out by the active participation of various community groups on relevant important issues,” the GIZ Legal Program reports.

The committee inquiry on the effectiveness of state enterprise management was carried out on the initiative of the Parliamentary Committee on Sector Economy and Economic Policy of Georgia, with the support of the GIZ Legal Program. Both the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and the Ministry of Finance of Georgia were involved in the process.

Within the frames of the inquiry, numerous workshops took place with participants from the different ministries, public law entities, in addition to various large state-owned enterprises and the Partnership Fund.

The final report of the committee inquiry provided the recommendations of the inquiry group and stakeholders as well as the opinions of the invited experts. The recommendations focused on three key issues: Establishment of the Coordination Council / Working Group; Development of the state Policy Document; Implementation of internationally recognized corporate governance standards.

The thematic inquiry group is to ensure appropriate monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations by the Government of Georgia.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been working in Georgia since 1992. GIZ's country office in Tbilisi primarily manages regional programs that are being implemented in Georgia and the two neighboring countries Armenia and Azerbaijan. By the end of the year 2018, 93 national and 24 international employees and nine integrated specialists of GIZ were working in the country.

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ works in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the following priority areas: Sustainable economic development; Democracy, civil society, and public administration; Environmental policy, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

By partnering up with the three neighboring countries, GIZ additionally improves the regional reality, allowing the states to learn from one another. In this way it further contributes to crisis prevention between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

By Nini Dakhundaridze