People’s Power’s Khundadze: Peace fosters economic development; Georgia is heading in right direction with improvisational policy

“Peace is the sole indispensable condition for economic development,” declared MP Dimitri Khundadze, Secretary-General of People’s Power.

Speaking about Georgia’s role as a key player along the Middle Corridor, Khundadze argued that the country’s continued economic growth is what will preserve its standing as a regional leader.

This, he maintained, is only achievable in conditions of peace, for war and development are simply incompatible.

“Peace is an absolute prerequisite for making full use of the country’s transit potential. Just a few days ago, when tensions in the Middle East escalated sharply, Georgian airspace was the only corridor on the transport and aviation map operating at full capacity. That is a small but telling illustration of the broader point I am making: peace is the foundation upon which our transit function rests.

How can a country join sanctions when doing so yields no result whatsoever, not even for those demanding them? Can anyone seriously envisage Georgian sanctions bringing the Russian economy to its knees? Our opponents advocate for active measures to improve living standards, including higher pensions, higher wages, more jobs, and a flourishing tourism sector, among others. They even put figures to it. Representatives of Gakharia’s party have tabled a proposal for a minimum wage of 1,050 lari. Lelo is calling for pensions to be raised to 1,000 lari. And all of this, supposedly, against a backdrop of sanctions? In wartime, such things are simply unthinkable.

These are cynically noble-sounding declarations. Some have even let slip that they would sooner see bombs raining down on Georgia than see peace endure here. Development and war are irreconcilable. Georgia, with its pragmatic, some might say improvised, policy, is heading in the right direction.

By way of comparison: in Ukraine today, nobody is thinking about raising pensions or building schools and nurseries. There is only one thought in Ukraine: how to keep this or that family member alive. More than ten million people have already been displaced. The economy is in ruins.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, tourism revenue has increased over the past year, rising from 4.4 billion in 2024 to 4.7 billion in 2025. Investment is growing. The national economy has expanded towards the 100 billion mark. This is precisely where the opportunity lies: to develop infrastructure, attract investment, and welcome ever greater numbers of visitors. From that foundation, it becomes possible to raise pensions more swiftly and create jobs at a greater pace; some 40,000 new positions have been added in recent times alone.

I am not claiming that everything is perfect. What I am saying is that in this extraordinarily difficult period, and through this policy, we have not merely preserved peace and averted war, we have managed, across every front, to be in a better position than we were yesterday. But that is not enough. We want better still,” said Dimitri Khundadze.