Society and Investments: The reasons of the social protest The proper investment policy plays the crucial role in the country`s economic development process, resulted in income increase, reduction of unemployment, regional development etc., -the success story proved by the experience of the recent years. But, not very seldom, some social groups, the populations of the particular areas do not consider the economic value of the investments and resist these projects grounding on the ecological problems, issues regarding the private property, payments and other. The challenges of this kind are being aggravated in the case, when the people show their resistance towards the projects that have already been launched – the important part of the works has been done, the significant sums of money spent. Thus, the mentioned, misunderstanding’’ between the investors and society seriously undermines the solid investment environment and economic development of the country. Due to the social background of the investments (benefit for everyone), ,,Reformers’ Club” considers, that the social, civil involvement in the policymaking process is to be encouraged. In 2000-2001, the non-governmental organizations in the State of California, introduced the project of, Community Benefits Agreements” (CBA), later spread over other States throughout the entire country and implemented by the legislatures. Taking into account the CBA`s practice,,, Reformers` Club” recommends the following: - Trilateral agreement between the investor, population and self-governance on the investing conditions – the most important, initiative point of the investment project, when the investor presents the project to the population, indicating on the expected outcomes including the negative results as well. At this stage the investor, municipality and population preliminarily agree to the compensation, employment, other obligations, that are to be taken by the investment company for the population`s benefit, such as employment of the local inhabitants on the construction sites, development of the infrastructure, covering the communication expenses during the project implementation, building the school or sport hall, support any other activity as prescribed by the trilateral agreement; - Only after the consensus has been reached, the investment project implementation goes into the next phase related with obtaining licenses, permissions and other activities. We suggest, that consideration of the U.S practice regarding the society’s active role in the investment policymaking, will improve the country`s economic development from the following points: - The interests of the State, population and investor equally considered and guarded during the investment project implementation; - All the parties take the responsibilities on the results of the investment prior to the implementing; - The investment process to be sped up, as the settlements has already been laid down by the parties during the negotiations; thus, the disputes, court proceedings, protests against the State and investors impacting the ongoing projects to be prevented; - The public awareness regarding the Government`s economic policy upraised and the social trust towards the State increased; - The civil initiatives encouraged. Irakli Kobidze ,,Reformers Club
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 10:33:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015