Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Wednesday claimed “specific donor organisations” were “artificially trying to block strategic economic projects” in the country through non-governmental organisations and “creating obstacles to fulfilment of strategic goals”.

The Government head made the allegation in an interview with the Public Broadcaster, telling the channel the recently adopted controversial law on transparency of foreign influence would make it “very difficult” for the donors to finance the alleged activities in the country.

Adopted last week by the Parliament, the law requires groups “considered to be an organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power” - determined by more than 20 percent of their funding coming from abroad - to be registered in the public registry with the status and publicise their received funding.

Let's take the topic of hydropower plants. We have a strategic interest in building hydropower plants in this country to achieve our strategic goal of achieving more generation than consumption by 2030. This is important to ensure energy independence for our country”, he said.
I am sure activities of specific NGOs will continue in the same direction, and it will be financed from outside. They will try in every way to prevent us from achieving this strategic goal of energy independence. When the funding in this area becomes transparent, this false environmental narrative will no longer be able to serve their anti-state goals”, the PM added.

He also told the channel the same approach applied to political parties in the country.

Transparency of the parties largely insures the risks, but it certainly cannot insure one hundred percent. Here, too, we will largely insure the risks associated with the financing of NGOs. In general, as far as the financing of NGOs is concerned, 95 percent of this financing comes from a total of three or four donors”, the Government head claimed. 
Kobakhidze told the interview transparency would be an “insurance mechanism” for the Government and against activities of donors and funded organisations. 

agenda.ge