Georgian PM highlights attempts of non-transparent NGOs to make revolution in country

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Friday highlighted the importance of the bill of transparency of foreign influence for accelerating the country's economic development.

In his remarks, Kobakhidze noted that in the conditions of the lack of transparency, the domestic NGOs’ activities hindered the country’s progress through their attempts to make revolutions in 2020 when they rigged the parallel vote tabulation of the 2020 parliamentary elections and in 2022 when Georgia did not received the EU membership candidate status.

“We will need the next few years to get as close as possible to EU member states, the bill on transparency of foreign influence is also very important in terms of economic development”, Kobakhidze said.

“Actually, in the conditions of the lack of transparency, the NGOs’ activities seriously hindered the progress of the country. [...] The non-transparent NGOs tried twice to make a revolution in the country”, he continued.

“If their funding had been transparent, there would have been much less chance that they would have openly engaged in revolutionary processes, which of course always has a negative impact on the development of the country's economy. Transparency is an important condition for us to accelerate [the country’s] economic progress”, he concluded.

The Georgian Parliament last week adopted the bill on transparency of foreign influence in its first reading with 83 votes in favour and none against.

The bill on the transparency of foreign influence aims to ensure that NGOs disclose their annual financial reports, with penalties limited to financial sanctions for non-compliance.