On September 13th, over half of the staff and researchers of ISET and the ISET Policy Institute were invited to Gdansk for an annual meeting of the FREE Network, where they presented research papers and exchanged ideas with leading academics and policymakers.
The cultivation of berries is becoming increasingly popular among farmers in Georgia. The necessity of diversification in agricultural production and opportunities in the EU market have led farmers and the state to placing greater focus on the sector.
ISET Policy Institute, with the support of UNIDO, conducted a study to map emerging and potential clusters in Georgia with a focus on the manufacturing and agri-business sectors. The objective of the project was to enhance entrepreneurship and business sophistication by strengthening the capacities of government and local entities to develop and operate clusters and supporting companies directly with strategic investments and to better connect with diaspora groups, while also demonstrating the effectiveness of these strategies to businesses.
“Commercialization of farmers can happen only if land consolidation occurs and farmers benefit from economies of scale” – Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Giorgi Kobulia stated at the Rural Conference 2019 held in Tbilisi last week.
ISET-PI’s forecasted real GDP growth for the first two quarters of 2019 remain at 4.3% and 4.6%, respectively. Geostat has released its rapid estimate of real GDP growth for February 2019. Their estimated growth stands at 4.6%, while the average real GDP growth for January-February 2019 reached 4.1%.