Meeting of the Commission for the Study of National Issues

• July 12, 2021

The Presidium of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences hosted a meeting of the “Commission for the Study of National Issues” at which Professor Mikheil Jibuti presented a report.  The following questions were raised in the report: why Georgia lives worse than it could, proceeding from her human, natural and geopolitical capabilities; why Georgia failed to overcome the level of economic situation of 1989. It was emphasized that the current standard of living in the country is largely determined not by the results of current socio-economic activities, but by external and internal debts. According to the speaker, the country developed forms of a market economy in the 19th and 20th centuries, which is essentially “secondary” capitalism. However, the dismantling of the Soviet system has not yet been completed, the state, like the Soviet state, continues functioning as the owner of natural minerals and resources, enters the state market as a counterparty, provides false information to the market about prices and does not allow the market mechanism to function properly. The disintegration of collective farms, state farms and rural councils was not accompanied by the proper development of local governments and cooperatives. Moreover, the village as a unit with legal status has disappeared from the political and economic life of Georgia. The chairman of the Commission, academician Elizbar Javelidze summed up the results of the meeting and, together with other members of the commission, decided to transfer the main theses of Professor Mikheil Jibuti’s report to higher authorities to consider the importance of these theses for the future development of the Georgian economy.