Europe & Central Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi
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Tbi or not Tbi, Tbillisi Metropolitan Challenge |
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| Georgia is loosing population, from 4.4 million to 3.7 million inhabitants. Many cities are stagnating. Few are growing. Tbilisi is not, but the metropolitan area is. This national stagnation will be reverted when Georgia will find it’s international role to play. With an educated population, with social resources and a sound social structure Georgia is clearly under-performing with 10.000 USD per Capita GDP. 25.000 USD would likely be the figure in the future.
The municipal government nor the national one have addressed yet the issue of a necessary overall vision of Tbilisi metropolitan growth. Tbilisi with just 1.1 million inhabitants and 300.000 extra ones in the metropolitan area is in good position to rise up to the challenge. A subway network in spite of the small size of the city and a parallel rail-tracks asset along the spine of the metropolis would be the envy of many, many, metropolises. It would be easy to decentralize expected growth in sustainable centralities (TOD’s) along the Commuter train service, yet to-be. Easy to articulate a network of centralities, public transport fed in a reticular pattern. Easy to decongest the river banks and build a green skeleton for the city. Easy to build a logistic platform hub that will give air access to Georgian high value added products. These are many projects that need a Governance framework. A National Government decentralized institution that will provide for the necessary coordination, the know-how and the financial capacity to build up the metropolis on which Georgia depends to position itself in a globalized world? Only Tbilisi and Georgia can provide the answer. |
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