A translation bureau in Jvari - TARGMANEBI's service for a town where the rules of international financial institutions are the everyday working language. The rehabilitation of the Enguri HPP runs on loans and grants from European and international banks, and that means a specific system of documents: tender documentation in the bank's standard forms, contracts under international engineering contract conditions, compliance reports on environmental and social standards, procurement rules that differ from national ones. A Georgian supplier bidding in such a tender first has to get to know this system and then fit its offer to it - and both start with translation.
Alongside the projects Jvari has an ordinary life: the families of power plant staff, old papers from the villages along the dividing line, dam-view tourism that has been growing in recent years, young people leaving for Europe or Tbilisi. Jvari is five hours from Tbilisi and half an hour from Zugdidi; the courier comes to Jvari together with the Zugdidi visit, and project documents rarely need paper at all.
Tender, contract, reporting - documents of an international bank project
An international financial institution's project goes through three phases, and in each the Georgian participant needs its own group of documents - some from the bank's language into Georgian, some from Georgian into the bank's language:
Before and during the tender
- Tender documentation and procurement rules in Georgian for the bidder
- Qualification requirements and forms
- The bidder's proposal, price schedule and technical offer in English
- Company extract, financial statements and experience records
- Bank guarantees and insurance terms
Contract and performance
- The contract under international engineering contract conditions, in Georgian
- Engineer's instructions, variation orders and claims
- Interim payment certificates and invoices in the bank's format
- Subcontractor agreements in bilingual form
- Employment contracts and safety instructions for local workers
Standards and reporting
- Environmental and social standards compliance reports
- Public consultation material and the grievance mechanism in Georgian
- Land acquisition and resettlement documents with owners
- Monitoring and audit reports for the bank
- Incident and safety reports in both directions
Terminology in international bank documents is standardised - "bidder", "employer", "engineer", "variation order", "defects notification period", "eligible cost" - and every term has to be rendered with the Georgian equivalent established in the bank's guidelines, otherwise the bidder's proposal formally answers "a different document". That is why the terminology base for Jvari projects is built on the bank's guidelines and works the same way for competing bidders - our business is terminology, not anyone's advantage. Price schedules and payment certificates are checked by a financial editor down to the euro cent.
A local supplier with a foreign contractor
A large part of business in Jvari and Zugdidi serves the foreign contractors of the Enguri HPP - materials, transport, catering, accommodation, equipment hire - and that relationship runs in the contractor's language: a subcontract in English, invoices and acceptance certificates in the format of the contractor's accounts department, claims for delay, quality documents for the contractor's safety and quality system. For a supplier, an information translation or a bilingual version of the subcontract before signing is the document that later protects it in a payment dispute; an invoice kept as a template is filled in within hours every month. For local workers the contractor's safety instructions are translated in shop-floor language, with imperative sentences.
In bank projects the grievance mechanism has a place of its own: a local resident has the right to file a complaint about the project's impact - noise, roads, water, compensation - and that complaint goes to the bank in English, with the answer coming back in Georgian. We translate such complaints for information, quickly and inexpensively - for the resident it is the only way to have their voice recorded accurately in the bank's report.
The dam, the line, tourism
Visitors coming to see the Enguri dam have been increasing in Jvari in recent years, and local hotels, cafes and guides need the history of the dam, visitor rules, hotel descriptions and menus in English and Russian - without certification. Technical facts - height, capacity, dates - are checked against engineering sources. Families in the villages around Jvari along the dividing line, like those in Zugdidi and Tsalenjikha, hold Soviet and pre-war papers that are processed with a notarized Georgian translation - one family, one package, one transliteration.
Jvari families
In the family of a power plant employee, papers come in two kinds: work-related - certificates, qualifications, project documents - and family ones: a child enrolling at a university in Tbilisi or Europe, a grandmother retiring with a Soviet employment record book, a family member working in Italy, a child travelling abroad to a parent. Both arrive on one number, are processed with one transliteration and return to Jvari with one courier.
Languages in orders from Jvari
Because of the international bank projects, English is the undisputed working language in Jvari - tenders, contracts and reporting run in English; depending on the contractors, German, Italian, Turkish and Chinese appear, and French with European financial institutions. Russian is the language of old documents and the power plant's Soviet archive, Greek, Polish and Spanish of family documents; Ukrainian, Dutch, Czech and Arabic are tied to individual contractors and visitors.
The process for bidders and suppliers
Tender package and deadline
The bank's tender documentation or the contractor's subcontract - as a file, by email to info@targmanebi.ge, with the tender closing date. Attach the link to the bank's guidelines too, if the package refers to them.
To understand or to submit
Tender documentation to understand - an information translation or selected sections; a proposal to submit - in full, in the bank's format, with the bureau stamp or notarized, as the package requires.
Bank terminology, financial check
The tender and the contract are translated by a legal translator familiar with international procurement terminology, the technical offer by a technical translator, and the tables are checked by a financial editor.
File to submit, paper in Jvari
You receive the file in the bank's format, ready to upload; the courier brings certified paper to Jvari together with the Zugdidi visit, or earlier by arrangement when it is urgent.
Price and deadlines
An order from Jvari is priced as in Tbilisi, always by agreement after we see the documents. A tender or contract document costs more per page than an official certificate - because of the terminology and the financial check - but choosing sections and using the base templates cuts the cost several times over; forty pages of tender documentation for information rarely take more than a week, a proposal in the bank's format is fitted to the tender deadline, a bilingual subcontract takes three to five days, an invoice and an acceptance certificate hours, and a family certificate with notarization two to three days. A contractor or supplier gets a terminology base and one invoice at the end of the month. If two competing bidders come to the same bureau - which happens in Jvari - one will never learn the other's proposal from us: the cases are handled by different translators, and the terminology base shares only the bank's vocabulary, not the content. The bureau is legally represented by its owner, lawyer Mariam Zumadze (sole trader, ID 30601010853), who corrects any confirmed inaccuracy free of charge.
Bidding in an Enguri HPP tender and need the bank's documentation in Georgian and the proposal in English? Serving a foreign contractor and want to understand the subcontract before you sign? Send us the package and the deadline from Jvari - the bank's terminology is our home ground.
Call: 501 113 200Frequently asked questions - translation in Jvari
The bank's tender documentation is 200 pages in English. Does all of it need translating?
For a bidder, the instructions, qualification requirements, contract conditions and technical specification are usually enough, while the standard forms are filled in in English anyway. Send us the table of contents and we will choose together - this cuts the cost several times over, and we fit the deadline to the tender closing date.
We prepared the proposal in Georgian and the bank wants it in English. In what form?
In the bank's format, in English, with the terminology used by the bank's guidelines; certification as the tender package requires - often the bureau stamp, sometimes notarization. Price schedules are checked by a financial editor down to the euro cent.
The contractor gave me a subcontract in English and the signing is tomorrow. What do you advise?
An information translation before signing - in one day, without certification - with the clauses on deadlines, penalties, payment and termination highlighted separately. If the contractor agrees, we prepare a bilingual version so that in a dispute both sides read the same text.
My plot falls within the project corridor and I was given the resettlement documents in English as well. Who will check them?
Send us both versions - a legal translator will compare area, amount, deadlines and compensation terms clause by clause and list the differences for you in writing, before you sign. We apply the terminology of the bank's resettlement standard from the same base.
How long does an environmental report in English for the bank take?
It depends on the volume - a thirty to forty page report takes one week, with the terminology of the bank's standards and a translator with a technical and environmental profile; tables and monitoring data are checked separately. The summary section can be done faster if needed.
Will the courier come to Jvari, or do I have to go to Zugdidi?
The courier comes to Jvari together with the Zugdidi visit, on an agreed day; in Zugdidi the original can be collected by anyone who has business there. Tender and contract documents rarely need paper - the file comes ready to upload to the bank's portal.
Translation bureau in the other cities of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti
Jvari is part of Tsalenjikha municipality and half an hour from Zugdidi; Poti, Senaki, Abasha, Martvili, Khobi, Chkhorotsku and Mestia are other corners of the region, each with its own focus. Choose your city.