ISET is deeply saddened to announce that class of 2015 alumnus Artak Voskanyan lost his life in a car accident in his native Armenia on July 4th. The ISET community was devastated to learn of Artak's death. He is remembered as friendly, motivated, and keen to be involved in as many activities as possible. He founded the USA2Yerevan initiative and was an active, enthusiastic member of the university.

ISET students Ana Akoposhvili and Ketevan Melkadze came second place in the Mariam Kutelia Research Grant competition. They took part during their internship at a USAID-funded project, Restoring Efficiency to Agricultural Production. The purpose of the competition was to write proposals on how to improve the current state of the Georgian agricultural sector. The ISET students were awarded another paid internship at the Agricultural Policy Research Center (APRC) between April 15 and June 15.

On June 10, in cooperation with G4G USAID, ISET Policy Institute completed a 3-day workshop on Competition Policy. Eleven participants from the State Competition Agency, the Taxpayers Union (TPU), Georgian Lawyers for Independent Professions (GLIP), and ISET all attended the event.

Currently, the Georgian agricultural sector is characterized by relatively low productivity (by international standards) and its contribution to the GDP of the country is much lower than what it could be, considering that 45%1 of the Georgian labor force is currently employed in agriculture.

The Government of Georgia (GoG) intends to create a national agricultural insurance program to achieve the following objectives: (i) developing the agricultural insurance market in Georgia; (ii) supporting agricultural production and increasing the competitiveness of farmers; and (iii) supporting the income of people involved in agricultural activities and minimizing their risks.