Saakashvili Crackdown Credited With Influx Of Armenian Tourists

Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
Aug 18 2005

President Mikhail Saakashvili’s radical shake-up of the once corrupt
Georgian traffic police has been responsible for a surge in the
number of Armenians spending their summer holidays in Georgia,
a government-connected Armenian businessman said on Wednesday.

According to Vladimir Badalian, a co-chairman of the Armenian-Georgian
Association of Business Cooperation, at least 10,000 Armenian tourists
have traveled to Georgia’s Black Sea region of Ajaria this year and
many more are likely to do so next year. He said they were attracted
by not only the relatively low cost of the Ajarian seaside resorts
but also by the virtual eradication of police corruption on Georgia’s
roads.

“You can enter Georgia and drive all the way to the Black Sea coast
without any problems,” Badalian told RFE/RL. “Nobody will stop you
on the way. As a result of that, 10,000 vacationers went to Ajaria
by their own cars.”

The Georgian traffic police were notorious in the past for their
corruption and in particular routine extortion of bribes from the
drivers of Armenian cars and buses venturing into Georgian territory.
Saakashvili disbanded them and formed a new, Western-style road patrol
service from scratch shortly after taking office on the back of the
November 2003 “rose revolution” in Tbilisi.

Saakashvili welcomed last week the influx of holidaymakers from
Armenia, similarly attributing it to his crackdown on police
corruption. Speaking to Armenian journalists in the Ajarian capital
Batumi, he said he hopes their number will grow tenfold next year.
“We should also develop links to organize visits to both countries,
so that people who go to Armenia also come to Georgia and vice versa,”
he said. “There should be no border obstacles.”

Saakashvili also called for closer economic times between the two
neighboring nations. “I see with delight how rapidly the Armenian
economy is developing. Annual growth in Armenia is about 10 per cent,”
he said, according to the Georgian Imedi TV. “I think that there are
many things we should learn from Armenia, for example how to organize
the banking system, a system for micro-loans, a cooperative system
in agriculture and the export of agricultural produce.”

“I think Armenia emerged from this crisis earlier and Georgia is now
enjoying rapid economic growth. Developing without each other would
not be rational, natural or right,” he added.

Badalian, whose daughter is married to the older son of President
Robert Kocharian, was also in Batumi last week along with a group of
businessmen from Armenia. He said they are interested in investing
in the local tourism infrastructure and were encouraged to do so by
local authorities.

Badalian also noted growing Armenian business interest in Georgia’s
broader economy. “The manufacturing sector of Georgia has lagged behind
that of Armenia,” he explained. “Many businessmen here, for whom the
Armenian market is too small, are now looking for new markets.”