The Committee held the verbal hearing, presided by the Chair, Nino Tsilosani on the oversight of the enforcement of the Law on Agricultural Cooperatives.

According to N. Tsilosani, as this is the last verbal hearing it is important to hear from the responsible agency – Environmental Ministry.

Shalva Kereselidze, the head of the working group set up in the Committee on monitoring the implementation of the Law on Agricultural Cooperatives, noted that the group members also met with representatives of cooperatives in almost all regions to hear directly from them whether they face problems within the law. According to him, the Ministry has invested a lot of work and resources in the development of cooperatives over the years, whether it is legislation or targeted programs, however, there is an opinion that the result is still not what was expected.

As Sh. Kereselidze added, most of the cooperators believe that the main starting point for development is the state targeted programs.

Giorgi Khanishvili, First Deputy Minister of Environment and Agriculture, Ilia Tamarashvili, Director of the Rural Development Agency and Kote Khutaidze, Head of the Cooperatives Development Department participated in today's meeting.

According to G. Khanishvili, the questions asked are legitimate, but for many projects and evaluations it is too early to make a conclusion on how these cooperatives can overcome poverty in the village - "However, in general, if we talk about the parameters of the projects over the past five years, more than 30 mln GEL has been allocated for the project called Cooperation in Georgia, which is one of the highest budget funding under the auspices of our Ministry”.

As G. Khanishvili stated, despite the fact that we have a pretty good law, there are still problems and he informed the legislators about the main essence of these issues.

The meeting was mainly held in the mode of discussion, the conversation focused on the experiences of different countries, where cooperatives are at a fairly high stage of development.

According to the representatives of the Ministry, it can be said that some remarks are acceptable and help the development of cooperatives in the country.

According to N. Tsilosani, after the verbal hearings, the Committee will prepare a summary report, which will reflect the conclusions and recommendations, and, if necessary, will start working on the relevant legislative changes.

The project is backed by WFD, EU and UNDP.