Patarkatsishvili Speaks of Business, Politics
Influential media and financial tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, who unexpectedly unleashed criticism towards the authorities last week, reiterated in an interview with his own television station, Imedi, broadcasted on April 2, that business in Georgia “is frightened.” He also unveiled plans to attract foreign investment in Imedi TV.
He said that although he has always “consistently supported the course which has been set after the Rose Revolution in the country,” he can not turn a blind eye to those mistakes which might occur on the way of implementing this course.
“I have spoken several times behind the scenes about all these mistakes with the authorities… I have spoken about it with the President [Mikheil Saakashvili] and the Prime Minister [Zurab Nogaideli]… But I have never tried to unveil my opinions publicly because I think society outside [the country] should see that there is one team, a united society, which, of course, has certain political problems which are not of a global nature… My irritation was triggered by the fact that the authorities assessed this [criticism] as weakness by me,” Patarkatsishvili said.
He said that when he arrived in Georgia in 2001 he had no plans of launching businesses in Georgia.
“But it was [lat Prime Minister] Zurab Zhvania [in 2004-2005] who convinced me in to do the opposite. He told that me that I was an indicator for other businessmen on whether it was worthy to invest in Georgia or not… So I was a kind of an example for investors so as to make them believe that their investments would be protected in Georgia,” he said.
“But, unfortunately, as it turned out, my personal example alone was not enough,” Patarkatsishvili added.
He said that the fact that “business is frightened is absolutely vivid.”
“I have witnessed this during a meeting between the Interior Minister [Vano Merabishvili] and businessmen, when in private conversations with me all the businessmen were talking about their problems, but all of them kept silence during the official meeting with the Interior Minister. So I ask the authorities: ‘do you need to frightened business?’ A frightened business sector will never make the country prosperous. We need free business,” Patarkatsishvili said.
Patarkatsishvili said he has no current plans of going into politics.
“Business is everything [for me], so I am not disposed towards being in politics; but at the same time, I want to note that I do not want the situation to force me to do this [go into politics],” he added.
He also said that talks are underway with foreign corporations about investing in his television station Imedi TV; however, Patarkatsishvili refrained from specifying the details of this deal.
“We have a circle of partners with whom we are interested in and it is our interest for this giant corporation to come into Georgia… [Talks] are almost finalized and the society we will soon hear about it and I think it will be a boost for the futher development of Imedi TV,” Patarkatsishvili said.
