New measures of social support were announced to launch in the country from January 1, 2023, at a governmental meeting by Irakli Garbiashvili, PM of Georgia, on November 28. According to the decision of the Georgian Government, new measures will be taken concerning maternity pay, assistance to socially vulnerable families, education, and drug prices.
The maternity leave pay will be doubled for private sector employees and become 2.000 lari ($ 740), but teachers will be given full maternity leave pay.
An increase in social benefits includes assistance for socially vulnerable families with children, which was decided to be raised from 50 lari to 200 per child starting July 1, 2023.
The budget of the Ministry of Education is to be increased by 400 million lari ($ 146,80 mln), and the new program will be realized for the building and renovation of 885 kindergartens and 500 schools in Georgia. The first stage of the program will start on January 1, 2023, involving 100 million lari ($36,70 mln), but the full amount of the program will reach 1.3 billion ($ 0.48 bln). The PM stated that the health and environment where the children lived were very important for the country. The program was said to cover higher education institutions too. 30 million lari ($11 million) will be spent on setting up computer laboratories at schools.
The governmental meeting discussed a large-scale employment program as well. According to the new program, a socially vulnerable population of 200.000 people in Georgia receiving social benefits are to be offered job opportunities both in public and private sectors starting March 1, 2022. It was mentioned that every seventh person lives below the poverty line, and the number has been more than 510.343 people. The employment program is expected to increase the income of vulnerable people receiving social benefits as well as lead to the creation of better infrastructure than the existing one.
The Georgian Government discussed tourism as one of the main industries of the country as well. Speaking about tourism, the Prime Minister stated that next year to be crucially important for tourism, as Georgia would host world stars in June, July, August, and September, allocating 70 million lari for the project. Celebrity show programs are thought to attract more tourists to the country.
Having discussed the prices for medicines, it was decided to introduce fixed costs. Another decision was made regarding free rehabilitation after stroke and brain injury victims, as well as the popularization of generic drugs. The reform started last year with the intention of importing quality medicines, though there was some disbelief in its success. The Prime Minister said that entering Turkish medicines was one of the measures to import quality medicines at reasonable prices. He said that the result of the reform had led to a reduction in the cost of medicines as well as the importation of quality drugs.
The new measures of social support and new programs serve to improve the living standards of the population, being very important for all countries, including Georgia.
Source:
https://1tv.ge/lang/en/news/georgian-govt-doubles-maternity-leave-pay-for-private-sector-employees/
https://agenda.ge/en/news/2022/4627
https://jam-news.net/prime-minister-of-georgia-announced-new-measures-of-social-support/
