Shorena Kakabadze, Kutaisi
About one year ago, the president of Georgia announced to the Georgian population on TV that “Kutaisi car-factory will obtain its old functions back. The work-shops will start working, Georgian product will be produced and thousands workers will be employed.” To make his statement more convincing, Mikheil Saakashvili showed a cardboard box with the inscription “Made in Georgia” and called upon everybody to start working in the factory. Thus, the president started to eradicate the unemployment in Kutaisi. A year later, the car-factory looks much worse than ever.
Big trucks are carrying the cargo out of the territory of the car-factory all nights long. Supposedly, they transport machines and installments from the factory. Kutaisi residents joke – is there anything left to be taken away from the factory? They might have started to cut land now.
The hope that the car-factory would reduce unemployment in Kutaisi faded away, like a queue of thousands of people in front of the factory; the people arrived there several minutes after the president’s statement.
“One should be a perfect actor to tell such a lie like our president did on that day. He called upon everybody to write applications immediately to get employed at the factory and I rushed there. I stood in the queue all day long and then we were told they would call us if we are needed. However, nobody called us. Why should they call us; where should we work? There are no machines or installments left in the factory,” said Guram Giorgadze who worked at the factory for more than 30 years. Then, one fine day he was sent on “holiday” and it has not finished for 5 years already.
Thousands of other former workers of the factory shared his fate. The territory of the factory, which was declared free industrial zone by the government last year and where only ruins of buildings remained, have been owned by Chinese and Egyptian people. They own hundreds of square meters in the area. Egyptian and Chinese people are mostly employed there which causes discontent of the Georgian workers who had worked in the factory for many years.
“According to our information, the inside territory of the factory is divided in three. Egyptian company “Fresh” owns one part of the territory; the second part is owned by Chinese people and the third is run by the people of Bezhuashvili (brother of the former minister of foreign affairs). I work in the part owned by Bezhuashvili; though it is not stable work -sometimes we work sometimes we do not. We have not received salaries for December 2009 and January 2010 yet. When we asked the authoritative person about the salary arrears, he said – I do not know anything; you can go to the fortuneteller and she will tell you when the salary-arrears are paid. Similar attitude to workers can show overall situation. I do not know what people think about the factory; in fact the situation is very different,” said a female worker of the factory who did not want to publish her name.
Journalist cannot find out what is going on in the territory of the former car-factory and current free industrial zone. There is no press-center, no website or contact person at the factory. Reinforced security guard protects the surrounded space.
One year ago, the president stated in his “impressive” speech that as a result of foreign investment the factory territory would get overcrowded by local workers and workshops would produce Georgian product. Although foreigners started working in the factory, they have not produced anything yet.
Egyptian company “Fresh” working in the territory of the car-factory has sent about 20 Georgian people to Egypt for training. As for the construction of factories and producing of Georgian product, apparently it is plan for the next 5 years.
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