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FINCHANNEL.COM | 20 JULY, 2015

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Supporting Georgia and Moldova

Effectively Manage EU Integration Process

e
recently
hosted a highlevel two-day
knowledgesharing workshop in Tbilisi with the support of the International
Visegrad Fund. The aim of
the event was to establish a
platform for dialogue and assist Georgian and Moldovan
businesses and governments
to discuss the potential costs
and benefits of the EU integration process. PMCG invited high-level practitioners
and business sector representatives from Poland, Hungary,
Slovakia and Czech Republic
to hear about their experiences and perspectives in this regard. We particularly focused
on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement
- DCFTA - which represents
the most challenging part of
the Association Agreement
for Georgia and Moldova.
The Georgian and Moldovan governments have agreed
to harmonize their legislation
with that of the Single European Market which requires
approximation of various
rules and standards. Georgia
and Moldova will largely benefit from the DCFTA, although
dialogue between public and
private sectors is crucial to
ensure the efficient and timely
implementation of the agreement. SMEs represent one of
the most vulnerable groups
in this process as they have to
adapt to a new environment
and have to adopt standards
in accordance with those of

the EU. This will be beneficial

from long-term perspective
but can be costly if not carefully analyzed and considered.
This challenge spawned the
idea to invite recent EU members, the Visegrad countries,
to our event in order to share
their best practices, positive
and negative negative experiences and lessons learnt.
To summarize the results of
the workshop, we can say that
Georgia and Moldova have to
focus on three key areas in
order to fully benefit from the
DCFTA:
Delays in the implementation process have
to be prevented. Experience
shows that some pieces of legislation are adopted in a hurried manner without proper

consultation and engagement

with the private sector which
later causes undesired results
and negative effects on businesses. Therefore, public and
private sectors have to coordinate constantly to adopt legislation suitable and relevant to
the current business climate.
Strengthen knowledge
and awareness of EU law
approximation process. It
is often considered that Georgia and/or Moldova have to
copy EU member states legislation and completely re-write
their respective national laws.
This is an incorrect understanding, as in reality, the EU
member states have different
national legislation in each
sector but it is compliant with
EU general principles and di-

Greece Concedes to
Bailout Demands

his time its stricken

parliament had all but
run out of options, and
on Wednesday night
passed the austerity
bill demanded by its eurozone
creditors as a first step to reopen negotiations over an 85
billion euro bailout package.
While the bill passed comfortably through parliament
- 229 votes to 64 - it met highprofile opposition from within
Alexis Tsiprass governing
Syriza party, and included
tight measures such as VAT
increases and pension curbs.
Greeces eventual acceptance of terms - after months
of protracted posturing should start the process of
disentanglement of what has
been a complex, bitter and
presently, violent situation.
But in other ways it ignites
more concerns than it quashes.
London Business School academics Richard Portes and Michael Jacobides scrutinise the
impact of the likely new deal.

HARSHER TERMS,
TOUGHER TIMES
Such has been the voracity
of its stance that Greece now
finds itself hamstrung by implications far more binding
than those its people opposed
in the 5 July referendum.
And not only has the agreement split the Syriza party
- deputy finance minister Nadia Valavani resigned hours
before the vote - it has also
provoked civil unrest on the
streets of Athens.

Richard Portes, Professor

of Economics, London Business School and author of
Greece: seeking a way forward, wonders if the new deal
is sustainable, given that tight
deadlines prompted the rapid
drafting of legislation, which
may need amending in the
light of day.
Last night the Prime Minister said he didnt believe in
the deal but would vote for it
all the same. This is not helpful, he said.
Syriza will break up and
rely on support from other
parties and an election in October is likely. In Greece you
used to have two main parties. Now it is fragmented.
Of course, its not just
the political disagreements
within Greece itself that are
set to boil over. The day before the deadline, details of
the International Monetary
Funds (IMF) debt sustainability analysis were leaked.
They made plain its thinking
that large-scale debt relief will
be required (potentially over
the next 30 years) in order for
Greece to re-emerge as any
sort of presence.
Such a moratorium on repayments flies in the face
of the wishes of eurozone
finance ministers, not least
Angela Merkel who has made
clear Germanys stance that a
debt haircut would be unacceptable.
Professor Portes comments: The German approach to Greece has been
too draconian. The macroeconomic basis of this programme simply doesnt hold.

It has been implemented elsewhere in the eurozone and it

is misguided.

CIVIL
RECRIMINATIONS
It goes without saying that,
as with any severe austerity
package, consideration has to
be given to the damaging effects on the Greek people and
the murky prospects of a nation
desperately short on resources.
Professor Portes believes
this to be a real and immediate threat.
The brain drain isnt a hypothetical danger. Its happening and may well accelerate, he said. Greece should
bring back its diaspora - lawyers, economists in the next
few months. It should bring
them into the elaboration of
this programme.
Greece doesnt currently
own this programme. To get
ownership it has to do it right.
It needs the expertise of its diaspora.
In his assessment of the
latest agreement, Michael
Jacobides, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, London Business
School, points to the fact
Greece was ultimately forced
to accept the lesser of two
damaging situations.
The terms and conditions
of this deal, compared to
where we were in November,
suggest that this must be the
most expensive on-the-job
training in human history,
he argues.

rectives. Therefore, there is a

need to empower public and
private sectors capacities in
EU approximation processes
in order to ensure legal harmonization which will prevent any misinterpretation
and negatives impacts.
Prevent
overregulation. While harmonization
regulations it is essential to
consider local trends and the
business climate. Overregulating of any sector, without
proper analysis of the needs,
might harm business development in the country and
moreover bankrupt SMEs
that play a crucial role in
countries economic and sustainable development.
While considering Slovakias example we can see that

recent liberal economic reforms in this country resulted

in fast development and modernization of industries. For
example, currently Slovakia
is one of the front runners in
the automotive industry. In
contrast, the example of Czech
Republic showed that a lack of
proper public-private dialogue
decreased confidence of businesses and the country could
not fully embed free market
principles. When it comes to
Poland, it has to be mentioned
that frequent law changes and
excessive regulations have become the main obstacles for
SMEs in its EU integration
process whereas Hungarys
experience demonstrated the
need to support SMEs to be
competitive on a new market.
The following participants
shared their views on the
event and the broader issue of
the path of EU integration for
Georgia and Moldova.
We are thankful to the
Visegrad Group, which is the
most consistent supporter of
Georgias European integration course. We highly value
their support, especially by
sharing the experience in
the process of modernization and Europeanization of
Georgia through the Association Agreement David
Bakradze, State Minister for
European and Euro Atlantic
Integration,
From
our
experience
we would highly encourage/
recommend intensive formal
and informal dialog and communication between govern-

ment and public in general

including dialog with representatives of employers, employees, NGOs and others
Ivan Miklos, former Vice
Prime Minister and Minister
of Finance of Slovakia.
The EU Association Agreement offers the opportunity to
have a transformative impact
on the Georgian economy
it is essential that the implementation of this agreement
does not have the unintended effect of making it harder
to do business in Georgia.
Knowledge sharing with other
countries provide essential
insights about the problems
to look out for, and how to
proactively engage with the
government in order to avoid
them George Welton, President of Amcham in Georgia.
It was widely acknowledged during the workshop
that Georgia is a front runner
among EaP Countries when it
comes to economic and business enabling reforms. PMCG
is actively involved in the EU
approximation agenda of EaP
countries and is sharing its
expertise and successful institutional reforms in the region.
Follow-up events will be held in
Chisinau, Moldova, on October
21-23, 2015 as well as in Minsk,
Belarus on October 24-26.
The workshops are held under the International Visegrad Fund project Sharing
Experience of Public-Private
Dialogue in EU Integration
Process for Moldova and
Georgia, implemented by
PMCG.

ATRIO - a new, premium

footwear and accessories
multi brand Store in Tbilisi

lexander
McQueen,
Calvin
Klein,
Lloyd,
Doucals,
Fabi,
Airstep,
Ixos,
Alessandro Dell Acqua, Ash
- This is an incomplete list of
the brands, which are available at ATRIO, located on the
Chavchavadze Ave. #29.
ATRIO - is a completely
new concept, premium class
footwear and accessories
multi-brand store presented
by Dressup Group. Here,
you can find classic, as well as
casual type of shoes and accessories for women and men.

Atrio, considering premium brands presented at the

store, has a special, unique
design and environment.
The interior was created by
design studio ROOMS, considering every small detail,
to make shopping process
very comfortable and enjoyable. Good example of this
is a private dressing room
for those who want a cozy,
comfortable
atmosphere,
where they can try on and
match desired shoes with
their clothes.
Premium Brand Products
presented in the store are an

expression of high standard

shoe manufacturing, quality, sophisticated design and
comfort. Most of them are
made in Italy, while others
in Western European countries. - said Irakli Mkervalishvili, Marketing Director of
Dressup Group.
In the near future, customers of ATRIO will be able to
view and purchase products
via online store, but before
this, all the news and information regarding store and
brands will be available on
ATRIO-s Facebook page :
FB.com/Atrio.ge