Georgia on the road to reform.(Analysis)(Railway & Transport Reform seminar)

Publication: Railway Gazette International

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US)

DAVID ONOPRISHVILI has a new challenge. Appointed as Chairman & Managing Director of Georgian Railway at the beginning of June, he is tasked with turning the network around and restructuring it for privatisation.

As the country's former Finance Minister, and a member of the economic reform policy committee, Onoprishvili has seen huge changes sweeping across Georgia's economy. But so far, he says, these have largely passed the railways by. 'The railway is still run in the same way that we inherited from the Soviet Union', he explained during a Railway & Transport Reform seminar hosted in London by LVA (UK) Ltd on June 28. 'Up to this year, there had been no effort to reform the railways--which has caused a lot of harm, as the rest of the economy is changing rapidly.'

'GR's financial situation is weak--the management was...

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