MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

With the participation of the EU expert, Alessandra Fratini, the draft postal law was discussed by the representatives of the postal sector at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development.

"The draft Postal Law fully complies with the best European practices and the requirements that regulate the activities of the post offices in the European Union,” – Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Guram Guramishvili said at the meeting.

The EU expert noted that the law is very important for Georgia as part of e-commerce regulation, as it is to regulate postal and parcel services.

“We discussed the draft of the postal law, which was prepared by the Ministry of Economy on the basis of several recent projects developed by it. I must say that the draft law is mostly in compliance with the laws of the European Union,” – Fratini stated.

According to Fratini, the main part of the law refers to the details of the purpose of the service provider, the establishment of the regulation fee for the financing of the postal sector regulator and the establishment of the financing mechanism for the financial burden of universal service.

The expert noted that this is a financial mechanism based on the state budget, and if the state budget is not sufficient to cover the financial burden, a compensation fund will be created and implemented, which will be filled by the operators who provide services within the framework of the universal services.

Adoption of the draft law prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development serves to the determination of the legal bases and basic principles of the activities in the field of the post on the entire territory of Georgia, to protect the rights of consumers, to ensure the efficient and sustainable delivery of universal postal services, to ensure its universality, reliability, equal access, non-discrimination and availability, postal protecting the security and confidentiality of data and messages exchanged through the network, promoting entrepreneurship, competition development, investment attraction, market liberalization, etc. An important basis for the adoption of the draft law is to bring the legislation in the postal field into compliance with the EU regulations within the framework of the obligation defined by the Agreement on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade between the European Union and Georgia.

The meeting held at the Ministry of Economy was attended by Eka Kubusidze, the Head of the Department of Communications, Information and Modern Technologies of the Ministry, and Levan Chikvaidze, the General Director of the Georgian Post, along with Guram Guramishvili, Alessandra Fratini and representatives of the private sector.