(Tbilisi, Civil Georgia, December 6, 2002) – Georgian Parliament adopted a resolution today urging the government to allocate 1% of county’s GDP annually for the Georgian Ministry of Defense (MoD) till 2005.
If the government agrees with the Parliament’s recommendation MoD will not have a fixed budget for the period of 2003-2005.
The Parliament’s resolution is caused with the lack of financing of the Georgian armed forces. The budgetary shortfall of the MoD in 2002 exceeded 11 million Lari (approximately USD 5 million).
According to the calculations 1% of the Georgia’s GDP in 2003 will be up to USD 36 million, while the draft budget of the 2003 considers allocation of only USD 26 million in the MoD.