DEREGULATION

The government of Georgia is planning to offer controlling stakes in seven major hydropower plants and one thermal plant for sale early this year. The power sector privatisation programme will be managed by Merrill Lynch.

The funds raised from sales to private investors will be used to modernize the power industry and to pay for energy imports. Georgia has 60 hydropower plants but none is working at full capacity because there are insufficient funds for maintenance. Indeed, some plants are generating no power.

One Georgian plant, Inguri, will not be offered for sale. It is considered to be strategically too important to be outside government control.