Peter Stano: Hope to resume full-fledged operation with Georgian authorities if upcoming elections will be free, fair

“Despite global uncertainty and regional geopolitical tensions, Georgia has remained a steadfast anchor of peace and stability,” said Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze adressing the panel discussion titled “Georgia – Nexus For Investment,” held as part of the 5th Tbilisi Silk Road Forum.According to the PM, guided by a clear vision of lasting peace and sustainable progress, the country has advanced along a steady path of development — maintaining macroeconomic stability, achieving impressive growth and demonstrating exceptional economic resilience.“These achievements are a direct reflection of the government’s guiding vision and strategy: that peace creates predictability, and predictability, in turn, lays the foundation for sustainable economic growth. From 2021 to 2024, our country recorded one of the highest economic growth rates globally, averaging 9.4% annually. Georgia remains on a strong trajectory, with growth projected at 7.2% in 2025, and medium-term growth expected to average 5.1% over the next five years, according to the IMF.This performance is built upon prudent macroeconomic management and comprehensive structural reforms that ensure both stability and competitiveness. Our reform path is disciplined, predictable and focused on measurable outcomes, fostering continuity and confidence among investors. As a result, Georgia remains an attractive investment destination, with its legal, business and investment environment consistently receiving high marks from leading international rating institutions. Georgia stands out prominently in the World Bank’s Business Ready (B-READY) rankings — 2nd in the Operational Efficiency pillar and 3rd in the Regulatory Framework pillar — highlighting our commitment to streamline business processes and strong regulatory standards.Additionally, Georgia ranks 6th for taxation, reflecting a highly favorable business and tax environment. According to the 2023 Open Budget Survey (OBS), conducted by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Georgia got 87 points out of 100 in State Budget Transparency and took 1st place in the world ranking of 125 countries,” he said. 

“Georgia has made it through extremely complicated and complex years. It has demonstrated resilience, stability, safety, consistency,” said Mariam Kvrivishvili, Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development at the panel discussion titled Georgia – Nexus for Investments held within the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum.According to Kvrivishvili, the policy of making business easily serves as “the fundamental basis of how the economy keeps growing fast in Georgia.”“And we use the opportunity to show off. In the last 2-3 years, our economic growth has reached 9.6 %. This year, we already have up to 8% economic growth compared to the same period of last year.This brings Georgia as the leader in the region, and leader among the European countries. This takes a lot of effort, hard work, a vivid action plan, and it takes an extremely tight parnership between the government and private sector and all the integrated parties. It is teamwork, we are very committed to ensure that we continue to be the most hospitable country in the world, not only for travellers but for domestic and international investors,” she said.Mariam Kvrivishvili remarked that Georgia is determined to support all scales of businesses, providing them with all necessary instruments and tools, and most importantly, access to finance.The Minister of Economy spoke about the investment climate in Georgia. She named predictability, safety, and stability as key and fundamental factors for investors.She extended her gratitude to EMAAR Group and Eagle Hills Founder, Mohamed Alabbar for large-scale investment projects.“I had an excellent dialogue with Mr Alabbar, who is a big friend and already our family member, and really represents a milestone for our country’s success with his historic USD 6.5 billion scale of investment. This is a very big achievement,” she said and thanked the forum participants.“I would like to use this opportunity to once again thank everyone who took their time and came to Georgia and gave us the honor and privilege to host over 2,300 delegates from more than 70 countries. It is extremely important for our country to be able to host forums like this and the Silk Road Forum has really been shaped as an important platform for dialogue between governments, goverment to private sector and business to bsiness relations and I think today has been extremely productive for all of us, to have panel discussions and a lot of interesting meetings by which we made huge progress adressing multiple matters and concerns and the ways how we overcome them together, contries and the private sector,” she said.Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze delivered the opening speech at the Georgia – Nexus for Investments panel of the Silk Road Forum. EMAAR Group and Eagle Hills founder Mohamed Alabbar, Galt & Taggart Executive Director Giorgi Kuprashvili, Trammo, Inc. Senior Vice President Oliver K. Stanton, and Chairman and CEO of Eksim Holding Ebubekir Tivnikli participated in the panel discussion.

A woman in California successfully used AI tools, including ChatGPT, to overturn her eviction notice and avoid tens of thousands of dollars in penalties over several months of litigation. As NBC News reports, Lynn White was behind on rent and initially lost a jury trial after facing an eviction notice. Instead of continuing to work with a local tenant advocacy network, she consulted ChatGPT and the AI search platform Perplexity to represent herself in court. That’s almost always a bad idea. But according to NBC, the chatbot identified potential errors in a judge’s procedural decisions for White, informed her what actions to take, and drafted responses to the court. “I can’t overemphasize the usefulness of AI in my case,” she told the broadcaster. “I never, ever, ever, ever could have won this appeal without AI.” White is one of several litigants NBC spoke to who represented themselves with the help of AI and came out on top. Another is Staci Dennett, a home fitness business owner in New Mexico, who used AI to successfully negotiate a settlement over unpaid debt. “I would tell ChatGPT to pretend it was a Harvard Law professor and to rip my arguments apart,” she told NBC. “Rip it apart until I got an A-plus on the assignment.” The output was eerily convincing. “If the law is something you’re interested in as a profession, you could certainly do the job,” the opposing lawyers reportedly told her in an email. However, the tools aren’t always successful in overturning decisions or winning legal cases. AI tools are known to spit out made-up and misleading information that could get a pro se litigant in trouble — like energy drink mogul Jack Owoc, who was sanctioned in August after filing a motion filled with hallucinated citations. Owoc was ordered to complete ten hours of community service, per NBC. Perhaps more worryingly, even a growing number of professional lawyers have been caught red-handed submitting filings that include hallucinated court cases, resulting in penalties and embarrassment. Case in point, just earlier this week, 404 Media reported that a New York attorney who was caught using AI in court was then caught submitting an AI-generated explanation for his gaffe. “This case adds yet another unfortunate chapter to the story of artificial intelligence misuse in the legal profession,” the disappointed judge overseeing the case wrote in a scathing decision. In August, a California attorney was issued a “historic” $10,000 fine for submitting an AI-generated court appeal. Twenty-one of the 23 quotes from cases it cited were found to be fabricated. Despite the dangers of potentially misleading courts, the advent of easily accessible AI tools has led to a slew of people representing themselves in court. “I’ve seen more and more pro se litigants in the last year than I have in probably my entire career,” Thorpe Shwer paralegal Meagan Holmes told NBC. That’s despite companies like Google warning users outright not to rely on AI for legal advice. In its terms of service, for instance, Elon Musk’s xAI warns users not to use its services to make “high-stakes automated decisions that affect a person’s safety, legal or material rights.” Nonetheless, existing guardrails aren’t stopping tools like ChatGPT from spitting out detailed answers when presented with queries pertaining to legal proceedings, for better or for worse. “I can understand more easily how someone without a lawyer, and maybe who feels like they don’t have the money to access an attorney, would be tempted to rely on one of these tools,” attorney Robert Freund told NBC. “What I can’t understand is an attorney betraying the most fundamental parts of our responsibilities to our clients… and making these arguments that are based on total fabrication.”

Irakli Garibashvili’s lawyer, Lili Gelashvili, states that the investigative agency questioned the former Prime Minister as a witness.According to her, Irakli Garibashvili himself and his legal representatives will make a statement in the coming days.“At this stage of the investigation, since Irakli Garibashvili has not been charged and has never been officially accused, I am not familiar with the case materials either. He was only questioned as a witness, and all I can say is that he responded to questions put to him by the investigators and provided some explanations. Regarding any further details, and in the interests of the investigation, we are not in a position to comment at this stage. It depends on the actions taken by the prosecution. I believe that in the coming days, Irakli Garibashvili and his lawyers will undoubtedly issue a statement and provide more detailed information.Recently, there has been circulating information, and I am uncertain of its purpose, origin, or intent. The photographs and all the material circulating do not reflect the truth. These items were not seized from Irakli Garibashvili’s family; therefore, this seems to have been a deliberate attempt to manipulate public sentiment, which has ultimately been misjudged. I am not sure what purpose it served, or rather, we may have an idea, but I will refrain from commenting further at this stage.As for the rest, Irakli Garibashvili will make a statement himself in the coming days, and I am confident he will address journalists’ questions in more detail. I understand there is significant public interest in this case and in this individual,” the lawyer noted.Regarding questions about items seized from Irakli Garibashvili’s house, according to the lawyer, no gold jewellery was seized from the former Prime Minister’s home.“What particularly drew everyone’s attention was the gold jewellery, chains, and similar items. It was as though no one explained where or from whom these had been seized, yet for some reason, everyone attributed them to Irakli Garibashvili. I can assure you that this is a lie, not only was that amount of jewellery not seized from his home, but not a single such item was confiscated at all,” stated Lili Gelashvili.For reference, during a briefing held today at the State Security Service, it was stated that Irakli Garibashvili was questioned at the Anti-Corruption Agency, that he fully cooperated with the investigation, and that he acknowledged receiving illegal income over the years.On October 17, searches were carried out at the residences of former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, former head of the State Security Service of Georgia Grigol Liluashvili, former Prosecutor General Otar Partskhaladze, and eight other individuals associated with them. The Prosecutor’s Office reported that various electronic devices, documents, and a substantial amount of cash were seized during these searches.

Brussels must return to respecting democracy, the rule of law, and sovereignty as the foundations of a rules-based international order, the Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili wrote on social media.Papuashvili referred to recent remarks by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and European Commission Spokesperson Anitta Hipper.Saakashvili wrote on social media that “on October 4, you will have the chance to deliver the final verdict on the regime of the Mankurts,” while Hipper said about the October 4 protest that “the European Union expresses solidarity with the people who are taking to the streets.”“Brussels’ substitution of values with political intrigues has led the EU to this deplorable reality. Brussels must return to respecting democracy, the rule of law, and sovereignty as the cornerstones of a rules-based international order,” Papuashvili wrote.