11th graders will only study subjects for national exams

By the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year, 644.2 thousand students were studying in general education institutions in Georgia, which is 0.6% more than in the previous academic year. 88.8% of the total number of students study in public schools, while 11.2% study in private schools. Of the total number of students, 48.4% are girls, and 51.6% are boys.Among the regions, the largest number of students (36%) study in Tbilisi.In 2025, 41.4 thousand students received secondary education, which is 0.8% less than the corresponding figure of the previous year. 55 thousand students received primary education, which is 1.8% less than the corresponding figure of the previous year.According to Geostat, by the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year, 66.3 thousand teachers were employed in general education institutions, which is 0.5% more than the similar figure of the previous year. The vast majority of teachers are women, namely, 87.6% of teachers are women, and 12.4% are men.

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In the “Quality Education” category, TBC’s IT Academy received the award - an initiative that offers young people completely free access to modern, in-demand technology professions. The learning process at the academy is led by top local and international specialists, alongside professionals from the TBC team, which continuously enhances the quality of the programs and their real impact on the sector year after year.TBC’s IT Academy was founded in 2019 and today has more than 5,000 graduates. Of these, 30% work within the TBC Group, while the rest continue their careers at various successful technology companies. The IT Academy is one of the strongest platforms in Georgia for strengthening the ecosystem of professional development and technological education.TBC received its second award in the “Climate Action” category. The bank presented the activities and initiatives it implements to address environmental and climate-related issues. Climate action is an integral part of TBC’s ESG strategy. TBC sources electricity from 12 solar power plants, covering 80% of branch consumption in the regions and 27% in Tbilisi. Its vehicle fleet consists of 57% electric and hybrid cars. TBC’s sustainable portfolio totals GEL 2.07 billion, of which GEL 1.2 million is dedicated to green and climate-related projects.The third award was presented to TBC’s ESG Academy in the “Partnership for Sustainable Development” category. To establish the ESG Academy, TBC secured financial support from the European Union with the assistance of the organization Finance in Motion, under the technical assistance programs of two European funds — EFSE Development Facility and GGF Technical Assistance Facility. The ESG Academy is Georgia’s first long-term educational platform focused on sustainability, offering all training programs free of charge in Georgian. The first course, Green Mindset and Green Financing, was co-created by TBC and the international training company Develor. In total, the academy’s courses will be completed by 900 TBC employees and 300 clients from various business sectors.It is noteworthy that at the event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the UN Global Compact, TBC was also presented with an additional special award. The bank received the award as a company that has been actively engaged in the initiative since its inception, sharing for many years with the business sector and society the steps taken toward achieving sustainable development goals, and has repeatedly won the Corporate Sustainability Awards competition.(R)

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Lion Finance Group (BGEO LN) shares closed at GBP 89.05/share (+6.90% w/w and +14.17% m/m). More than 195k shares traded in the range of GBP 84.65 - 89.15/share. Average daily traded volume was 42k in the last 4 weeks. The volume of BGEO shares traded was at 0.45% of its capitalization.TBC Bank Group (TBCG LN) closed the week at GBP 40.75/share (+8.38% w/w and -6.21% m/m). More than 375k shares changed hands in the range of GBP 38.15 - 40.80/share. Average daily traded volume was 134k in the last 4 weeks. The volume of TBCG shares traded was at 0.67% of its capitalization.Georgia Capital (CGEO LN) shares closed at GBP 27.75/share (+6.32% w/w and +5.92% m/m). More than 179k shares traded in the range of GBP 26.25 - 27.90/share. Average daily traded volume was 32k in the last 4 weeks. The volume of CGEO shares traded was at 0.51% of its capitalization.

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For comparison, in the first draft of the budget, the SSS budget was only increasing by GEL 14.5 million, to GEL 265 million.A significant part of the agency's funding will be spent on salary increases.The remuneration of 3,850 people employed by the SSS will increase from GEL 138.7 million in 2025 to GEL 205.4 million.

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During 2024, 35.8 thousand tonnes of crude oil (8.0 percent less than in the previous year), 177.8 thousand tonnes of coal (20.1 percent more than in the previous year), and 15.9 million m of natural gas (3.0 percent less than in the previous year) were extracted. According to the survey results, firewood production in 2024 decreased by 7.2 percent compared to the previous year, amounting to 1 034.6 thousand m³.As of the document, In 2024, Final electricity consumption amounted to 13 006.1 million kilowatt-hours, which is 6.0 percent more than in the previous year. According to 2024 data, the demand for natural gas amounted to 3 404.3 million m³ (1.1 percent more than in the previous year), while the final consumption of natural gas for the same period totaled to 2 711.2 million m³, which is 7.7 percent more than in the previous year. Compared to 2023, consumption of natural gas increased in certain subsectors of industry, as well as in services and agriculture, while a decline was observed in road transport.According to survey results, 1 578.6 thousand tonnes of petroleum products were consumed in the country in 2024 (8.4 percent more than in the previous year). Natural gas accounted for 42.4 percent in the structure of energy resource consumption, while petroleum products also represented a relatively high share (29.6 percent), followed by electricity (20.5 percent). Meanwhile, coal constitutes for 3.5 percent of the energy consumed during the year, and the remaining 4 percent was from biofuel, geothermal, and solar energy.The sectorial analysis of energy consumption in 2024 shows that the largest consumers of energy resources are the transport and residential sectors, accounting for 33.0 and 31.9 percent of total consumption, respectively. As for the other sectors, 15.3 percent is attributed to industry, 4.3 percent —to construction, 0.6 percent — to agriculture, forestry and fishing, while the remaining 14.9 percent is distributed between commercial and public services and other consumers.

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As the statement notes, GD will “use every possible legal means to ensure that the so-called media outlet spreading falsehoods answers for the dissemination of dirty, false accusations”.“This morning, the BBC published an article which, in addition to numerous absurd and false pieces of information, contains an accusation against the Georgian government that the Ministry of Internal Affairs allegedly used a ‘chemical substance’ against violent protesters during illegal rallies. Naturally, this so-called media outlet, which has been turned into a propaganda weapon of the ‘Deep State’, has presented not a single fact to substantiate this grave accusation.Moreover, all speculation is based on the opinions of specific individuals, among them Doctor Chakhunashvili, who is one of the active participants in illegal rallies, whilst his family member, his father, Giorgi Chakhunashvili, personally participated in the October 4 ‘overthrow of the government process’ and physically broke into the courtyard of the Georgian Presidential Palace. Furthermore, the article predominantly features interested parties, Gigauri, the accused Khasaia, the accused Shaishmelashvili, the convicted Bachiashvili and other similar individuals.The Georgian Dream communications team maintained active contact with the ‘investigative journalist’ before the publication of the article. We prepared comprehensive responses to every question posed by the BBC, addressing the British media outlet’s interests meticulously and in detail. Given that in recent times the aforementioned media outlet has become embroiled in more than one scandal, has repeatedly been confirmed to have spread falsehoods, and for this reason even the broadcaster’s top management was replaced, at the beginning of our response we set only two conditions—that our position be covered in full, we offered to provide evidence of every word we sent, whilst in parallel we demanded that, in observance of high journalistic standards, all reasoning presented in the article be based solely on evidence. In return, we were met with a jumble of lies and serious accusations against the government, which, as we have noted, are based on the narratives of interested parties and, of course, bear no relation to reality.It is well known to the public that several weeks ago, the BBC was embroiled in a scandal when the so-called media outlet broadcast a crudely edited interview with U.S. President Donald Trump, in which the context and content of the conversation had been distorted. As a result of this manipulation, the broadcaster’s director-general and executive news director resigned from their positions, though this more resembled rolling out the red carpet for the U.S. President than accepting responsibility for a mistake.That the BBC has no moral or professional obstacles to fulfilling dirty commissions and spreading falsehoods is also clearly evident from today’s published article, whilst the change in their management reminds us of the several changes of prime minister in Britain in recent years, which in that country has been followed not by fundamental change, not even by façade change, and as a result one ‘Deep State’-controlled government has replaced another.Because an outlet once considered authoritative, which today has been turned into a propaganda weapon of informal governance, has publicly spread false accusations against the Georgian government and has not presented even a single piece of evidence in the article to substantiate these accusations; because the so-called ‘journalistic investigation’ built on lies is primarily based on the narratives of criminals and has nothing in common with reality; because the BBC received exhaustive answers to all questions and did not publish even 1% of the substantiated responses in the article; because this dirty propaganda material is an attempt to smear the Georgian government, the Georgian police and, most importantly, Georgian statehood, we have decided to initiate legal proceedings against the fake media outlet in international courts.We will utilise every legal measure available to ensure that the so-called media outlet spreading falsehoods is held accountable for disseminating baseless, malicious accusations.Enclosed, we provide in full the questions supplied by the BBC before the publication of the article, along with the responses we submitted,” reads the Georgian Dream statement.

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According to Ilhom Mahkamov, the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor and Connectivity Investment Forum and the meeting of transport ministers of the European Union, Central Asia, the South Caucasus and the Black Sea region held within its framework are important for the countries, including Georgia and Uzbekistan, in terms of deepening trade and economic ties.The Minister emphasized the importance of Georgia as a maritime country in terms of connectivity between Central Asia and the European Union. According to him, close and effective communication between Uzbekistan and Georgia is very important in terms of creating new transport corridors, diversified routes and developing existing ones.The Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan also spoke about the prospects for cooperation between Georgia and Uzbekistan in the tourism sector, which is characterized by growing dynamics, as well as the existing air traffic between the two countries. In addition, he said that it is important that direct flights are being operated between Tbilisi and Tashkent. According to Ilhom Mahkamov, all this contributes to the deepening of economic ties between the two countries.A forum was held in Tashkent within the framework of the “Global Gateway” initiative.Georgia is also participating in the forum. The delegation includes: Minister of Economy Mariam Kvrivishvili and her deputies; Tamar Ioseliani and Genadi Arveladze.The goal of the forum is to strengthen the EU's cooperation with partner countries along the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor to facilitate transport links between Europe and Asia.

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That Freedom Bank was planning to enter the Georgian market, FORBES Kazakhstan wrote about it in September. By that time, the authorized capital of the future financial institution had already been determined - $1.8 million, which would be nominated by 5 million ordinary shares with a value of 1 GEL each. The charter and business plan, which include the organizational structure of the future bank and candidates for leadership positions, were also approved.Freedom Bank Kazakhstan ranks tenth among the 23 banks operating in the country in terms of assets – 2.4 trillion tenge (USD 4.6 billion).Timur Turlov is the founder of Freedom Holding Corp. According to the latest data, the businessman owns about 70% of the holding's shares. Turlov ranks second in the latest Forbes Kazakhstan ranking of the richest Kazakhs. He is also fourth in the ranking of the most influential businessmen. As of May 2025, his fortune was estimated at USD 5.8 billion.

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