NGOs criticize Georgia's proposals to residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

The Georgian authorities have offered residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to use the "Step to Better Future" programme, which provides for the expansion of trade ties, support for common business projects, training at Georgian universities and chances to visit EU countries without a visa. Activists of the NGOs established by refugees from Abkhazia and South Ossetia have stated that their fellow countrymen are not ready to accept these proposals.

Georgian authorities intend to create a special economic zone and introduce incentives for doing businesses by residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, the state minister for civil equality and reconciliation, has stated.

Back in 2010, Georgian authorities already moved similar proposals, but only the programme on treatment of residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia was successful, Mamuka Areshidze, the head of the Institute for Strategic Studies of the Caucasus, has reminded.

Residents of Abkhazia are not ready for such cooperation, as interpersonal relations are not settled, said Rusudan Marshaniya, one of the founders of the NGO "Georgian-Abkhaz Union: Face to Face", which unites Abkhaz women in Georgia.

For example, Abkhazian products fail to meet the EU standards; and they cannot be exported. Also, when conducting any joint business, problems usually arise; and they will be always backed "by unsettled ethnic relations; and this may end very badly."

Let us remind you that on March 9, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili announced his readiness for a dialogue with the authorities of Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The opposition treated it as a sign of "impotence" and readiness to concede to Russia.