Brussels - Georgia is hoping for a billion-dollar shot in
the arm on Wednesday when representatives of 67 nations and financial
institutions gather in Brussels for a one-day donors' conference.
After August's war between Russia and Georgia, Western nations
vowed to help Georgia rebuild its battered economy and take care of
the thousands of people displaced in the five-day conflict.
The EU's executive, the European Commission, has already said that
it will pledge up to 500 million euros (672 million dollars) in aid
until 2010. It is now set to chair, jointly with the World Bank, an
international conference aimed at boosting that sum.
At a meeting with commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso last
Tuesday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said that he 'hoped
it would be possible to mobilize twice that sum' in pledges at the
conference.
According to a study by the United Nations and World Bank, Georgia
will need an estimated 3.2 billion dollars in extra aid until 2011 if
it is to look after people displaced by the conflict and bring its
economy and national budget back to an even keel.
This winter alone, it will need some 900 million dollars, mainly
to look after the estimated 64,000 people displaced from the
breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the
surrounding area, the study says.
A total of 67 countries and organizations are set to attend the
conference, which is to be co-hosted by the French and Czech
governments as the current and impending holders of the EU's rotating
presidency.
Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze is also set to attend the
conference, officials in Brussels said.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story