Saakashvili Pledges Allowances for Teachers, Pensioners

President Saakashvili has pledged at least GEL 100 million for one-time allowances for teachers and pensioners, as well as for a state-funded employment programme.

Speaking in a televised meeting with the cabinet ministers on October 4, President Saakashvili said ?life is getting expensive? for Georgian citizens and the authorities had to tackle the issue through special compensation packages.

?The price on gas, electricity, as well as wheat, has increased,? he said. ?We are talking about economic growth ? and it is real ? but for many families? increased prices are very painful? We should permanently think about compensation [for socially vulnerable people] in parallel with economic growth.?

For this purpose, he said, a one-time ?compensation package? of GEL 50 for electricity and GEL 50 for gas would be distributed among pensioners and teachers living in the cities.

The same amounts, Saakashvili said, would be granted to pensioners and teachers living in the provinces, but for electricity and wheat, as some rural areas had no gas supply.

He also said that a state-funded employment program, implemented last year, should be restarted. The program involved three-month internships in private businesses for unemployed people, with the state paying GEL 450 to each participant over the period.

Saakashvili said that the new program would involve internships for five or six months and the state would again provide, as he put it, ?a minimum salary.?

He said that despite certain flaws the program had been ?in general successful?, as ?50,000 people participated in it and tens of thousands were able to find jobs? following their internships.

The Ministry of Healthcare, Labor and Social Welfare, which was in charge of the program, claims that a total of 35,000 people participated and 10,000 people were employed as a result of the project.

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