BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 11
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Georgia is creating, with support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an electronic platform in order to increase fiscal transparency, said Georgian Minister of Finance Ivane Matchavariani, Trend reports citing Georgian media outlets.
As reported, this platform allows Georgian citizens to the priorities of budgetary spending in detail, and express their opinions and suggestions.
Matchavariani noted that Georgia is the fifth country in the world in terms of an open budget index after New Zealand, South Africa, Norway and Sweden. This indicator assesses the transparency of the budgetary process and the engagement of the public in it.
Minister also spoke about the recently introduced Public Investment Management (PIM) method, which details a preliminary assessment of all major projects implemented by the Georgian government, including feasibility assessment and follow-up monitoring.
Finance Minister noted that the budget deficit is decreased and is about 2.5-2.7 percent of gross domestic product.
According to him, current expensesdecreased from 25 percent to 21 percent, which created government savings that are being used for infrastructural projects and the implementation of different reforms.
"Georgia is better than East European countries in control of corruption, regulatory quality and rule oflaw,” Matchavariani said.
Speaking about the external debt, he added that Georgian external debt is around 60 percent of the gross domestic product, which is a good result. However, the most of the debt is taken in foreign currency, which increases currency risks, the minister noted.
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