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Georgia more modest now, a year after war

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-28 10:11

Calls for democracy

Beholden to the West to the tune of $4.5 billion in post-war aid and loans, Saakashvili pressed for reforms from both inside and outside Georgia.

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"Your Rose Revolution will only be complete when government is transparent, accountable and fully participatory" he said.

At home, the 41-year-old leader of 4.5 million people has weathered a months-long opposition street campaign, which limped to an end last week.

But mass protests against his virtual monopoly on power have become an annual occurrence.

And discontent is likely to grow as an economic downturn starts to bite, with GDP forecast to contract 1.5 percent this year and foreign investment in the first quarter of 2009 down more than 75 percent from the same period last year.

Reuters

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