Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator Inaugurates New USAID/Georgia Headquarters
Celebrating 15 years of partnership with the Georgian people, USAID launched the opening of its new building on the embassy compound on July 23rd. US Ambassador Tefft, USAID Assistant Administrator Sean Mulvaney, USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia Ken Yamashita, and the mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava, gave remarks in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Additionally, Georgian first lady Sandra Roelofs, former Chairwoman of Parliament Nino Burjanadze, Vice-Speakers of Parliament, the Ministers of Environment, Agriculture, and Health, and First Deputy Minister of Economic Development joined 200 guests at the event. Leading up to the event, Yamashita opened the newly rehabilitated Kabali small hydropower station in Lagodekhi, near the Russian border. Through USAID assistance, the plant has tripled its electrical generation to 1.5 MW, enough to power approximately 3,000 Georgian urban households and capable of generating approximately $1.16 million in electricity sales over the next five years. Yamashita also met with civil society representatives, small business owners, and spoke with prenatal consultation participants. Together with Ambassador Tefft, Yamashita celebrated the completed implementation of the new Customs Risk Management System, which is estimated to save businesses about $90 million annually by reducing customs clearance times to two hours or less for 85 percent of all shipments.
Since 1992, USAID has provided Georgia with approximately $1 billion in assistance. The Mission works with partners in economic growth; democracy and governance; health and education; energy and environment; and peace and security. Since 2007, USAID has supported Georgia to increase tax revenue collection by over 40 percent; achieve Tier 1 status in State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report; and rank as the number one reformer in the World Bank’s Doing Business in 2007 report.
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| Avtandil Cholokava (right), head of the Kabali hydropower station, gives USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia Ken Yamashita (left) a tour of the plant. Through USAID assistance, the plant has tripled its electrical generation capacity--enough to power 3,000 households. |
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