This volume brings together eight case studies of young Georgian entrepreneurs, men and women who had the courage to take a risk and set up their own businesses. The eight case studies allow readers to accompany these entrepreneurs on the challenging journey of doing business in a very difficult environment, with very limited access to finance, knowledge and modern technology.

The unique cross-country study compares interest rates for a set of retail credit products in Georgia and select transition economies. Preliminary findings suggest that the cost of credit in Georgia is lower than in the CIS countries which have been covered by the survey (namely, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and in many cases Armenia) while it’s somewhat higher compared to a cohort of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) - this is true especially for local currency loans.

In the present era of environmental and industrial change, maintaining biodiversity is essential. Doing so not only protects species and habitats, but also brings benefits for society in the form of resulting ecosystem services. In order to conserve biodiversity and fulfill the obligations defined by various international conventions and the Association Agreement (AA), the Georgian Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource Protection (MoENRP) initiated the Law on Biodiversity in 2015.

The agricultural cooperative movement started a few years ago in Georgia and the registered farmer groups are currently still at the embryonic stage of development. The Soviet legacy and rather negative attitude towards earlier forms of cooperation (Kolkoz and Sovkhoz) has gradually faded among farmers, and today more than 1,400 cooperatives are registered with the Agricultural Cooperative Development Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia.

With EU financial and technical assistance, as well as training and education on cooperation and agribusiness, small farmers in Georgia are benefitting from economies of scale, cutting their production costs and increasing efficiency.

In 2013, as a follow-up to public consultations on improving the acting company law in Georgia, a working group was established to elaborate a new Draft Law of Georgia on Entrepreneurs (“Draft Law”). The working group was created under the Private Law Reform Council of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, the USAID-funded Judicial Independence and Legal Empowerment Project, which was succeeded by the Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG) Activity, with both projects implemented by the East-West Management Institute (EWMI), was a cooperating partner