On November 8, at an expanded meeting of the parliamentary commission on international, interparliamentary and relations with compatriots, an agreement on the implementation by Russian legal entities of investment projects in Abkhazia, which is opposed by the Abkhazian opposition, was discussed. . The document must still be ratified by the Parliament of Abkhazia.
The meeting was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy of Abkhazia. Cristina Ozgan and the president’s representative in parliament Batal Aiba. committee chairman Alkhas Bartsits He noted that the agreement was repeatedly discussed at the project stage.
“Parliament made a series of proposals and amendments to the draft agreement. Subsequently, there was a response from the Russian side, after which the government provided a detailed comment on each amendment proposed by parliament.” – said.
Deputy Kan Kvarchia He indicated that he would vote against the ratification of the agreement. He noted that the executive branch did not take into account the opinion of the majority of parliament. Kvarchia regrets that the amendment relating to multifunctional complexes has not been taken into account. He believes this will give investors the chance to build apartments, Apsnypress reports.
Ozgan expressed the ministry’s comments on 20 amendments proposed by deputies during the discussion of the draft agreement.
“The minimum threshold of 2 billion rubles for Russian investment projects in Abkhazia is the main protection mechanism included in the intergovernmental agreement,” – Ozgan said.
He clarified that the parliamentary amendments provided for the differentiation of areas of activity and the reduction of the volume of investments to a minimum of 500 million rubles for agriculture and 1 billion for projects in other areas. Ozgan noted that the Ministry of Economy, on the contrary, wanted to increase this amount to limit the number of projects covered by the agreement.
“We had the possibility of even raising this threshold to create a certain filter that would limit the number of projects. And in this way they would not create special competitive conditions for local companies.” – she said.
Commenting on the eighth amendment of deputies, which provides for the inclusion in the text of the agreement of an additional rule obliging the investor to coordinate with the Abkhazian side transactions relating to the registration of a pledge on investment objects, the transfer of ownership of investment objects. to third parties and the right to use the plots, Ozgan noted that the current version of the agreement provides that the investor has the right to register investment objects as collateral.
“The transfer of ownership of investment objects to third parties and the right to use land plots fully complies with the civil and territorial legislation of the Republic of Abkhazia.” – she said.
President of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget, Credit Institutions, Taxes and Finance Beslan Khalvash He noted that the main thing is to provide equal opportunities to foreign and local businessmen to carry out investment activities.
“We must not allow our business owners to be discriminated against. Our committee is considering projects to amend the law on investment activities. Its objective is to alleviate the tax burden of our citizens who participate in commercial and investment activities.” – said. In our country, economic activity has been carried out for 30 years under difficult conditions. “I would not support any decision that hinders our business owners, puts them on unequal competitive conditions or any monopoly that ruins our local business,” he said.
President of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and National Security Demur Shergelia He said he would vote to ratify the agreement.
“The project is very important and necessary. We need investments, without them there will be no development or prosperity. The negotiations lasted several months and there were many opinions. An appropriate decision will be made on the issue of multifunctional complexes, parliament is working and the right decision for our state will be made in the session.” – said.
Deputy Leonid Lakerbaya noted that moving your business forward is, of course, very difficult, but there are certain realities that cannot be ignored.
“It is no coincidence that we talked about opening branches of all these banks, because investors, people who do not take money out of their own pockets, will ask for loans from Russian banks. And since these are public funds, it will be necessary to control them. We do not have such opportunities for our people to get these loans. There are such interest rates that I wouldn’t want anyone to do business on these terms.” – said Lakerbaya.
He is ready to vote in favor of ratifying the agreement if the issue regarding activities such as the construction of multifunctional complexes is resolved. He recalled that Parliament recently examined the housing bill and, in fact, rejected it.
President of Parliament Lasha Ashuba He noted that the deputies, when proposing modifications to the draft agreement, started from the priority areas in which investments are needed.
“For projects in the agricultural sector, a threshold of 2 billion rubles was proposed. As for the tourism sector, the deputies considered that in this area we are successful, at least in part of Abkhazia. Therefore, they decided to make the threshold in another smaller part. But, unfortunately, our wishes were not listened to. The logic of what was said in parliament was related to raising the threshold in an area that is developed or not including it at all in this agreement. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it happen. I mean the tourism sector, although you yourself have said more than once that it would be good to raise the threshold to 5 billion rubles. Unfortunately this did not happen.” – Ashuba said.
As a result of the debate, the Committee on International, Interparliamentary and Compatriot Relations recommended raising the issue of ratification of the intergovernmental agreement between Abkhazia and Russia on the implementation of investment projects in the territory of the republic by legal entities Russian. to the parliamentary session.
As reported EADailyThe governments of Abkhazia and Russia signed an agreement allowing Russian companies to implement investment projects in Abkhazia on October 30. This has drawn harsh criticism from the Abkhaz opposition, which claims the authorities are squandering the republic’s assets and sovereignty.
