“I call on the Director of Caucasus Online and the representatives of the beneficiary company to stop spreading false information. The Communications Commission has been involved in the Digital Silk Road project for the past three years and is working to ensure that Georgia becomes a link between Europe and Asia in this field,” stated COMCOM Chairman Kakha Bekauri at today’s meeting of the Commission.

Mr. Bekauri noted that it is also in COMCOM’s interest to successfully implement the Digital Silk Road project, and that the Commission has been working together with its international partners to this end.

“For the past three years, we have been working to ensure that the Digital Silk Road project can be implemented. We are working to ensure that Georgia is involved in this project as a link between Europe and Asia, and that the two continents are digitally connected via the Black Sea. I therefore call on people to stop spreading false claims about COMCOM acting against the Digital Silk Road project. On the contrary, we were the ones to initiate the digital hub project together with our partner institutions. Neighbouring countries were also involved in this process at certain stages. The project is currently far from being completed, but it is much more than an idea – I have been personally engaged in this process for three years, and I wish to see the Digital Silk Road project become reality. We have been sparing no effort to achieve this goal, and will continue to do so in the future,” Mr. Bekauri stated.

The COMCOM meeting did not discuss the issue of prior agreement about the purchase of a 100% stake in Caucasus Online by the Azerbaijani firm Bakcell. Due to the fact that 49% of shares in Caucasus Online were sold illegally several months ago, and that the company has not been complying with COMCOM’s decisions for almost a year, the Commission is lacking the legal tools to examine a fundamentally similar transaction under the existing circumstances.

The Commission decided that a new request for prior approval by the company can be viewed as an ultimatum for reversing the illegally sold shares. COMCOM therefore refused to discuss this request and once again called on the company to comply with the legislation.

During the meeting, Kakha Bekauri also asked the lawyer of Caucasus Online why  the management and owners of the company, who always followed the existing laws and asked for the Commission’s prior approval in the past, decided to break the law with regards to the sale of the 49% stake. The lawyer of Caucasus Online failed to reply to the above question.