On Tuesday, January 26th ISET hosted a delegation of His Excellency Lukas Beglinger, Ambassador of Switzerland to Georgia, and Olivier Bürki, Counselor, Embassy of Switzerland, Regional Director South Caucasus to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC and State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. The purpose of the visit was to get to know the new Ambassador and the new Director of SDC and SECO and discuss the strengthening and continuation of the collaboration.

Soon the Georgian Parliament will be discussing a small but important change, which will affect something as significant and vital as bread, along with pasta, khachapuri, and anything made with wheat flour. The Georgian legislators will be considering a law, according to which flour fortification will become mandatory in Georgia.

On January 20th, the ISET Policy Institute presented the final results of its regulatory impact assessment (RIA) regarding the draft methodology of irrigation/drainage tariffs. The goal of the workshop was to present and receive feedback from major stakeholders on the final results of the RIA. The effort of different research centers of the ISET Policy Institute has also contributed to the study since mid-November 2015.

The Russian ban on Turkish goods turns out to be a boon for Georgian consumers. As Turkey is shifting its surpluses to the Georgian market, the prices of fruits and veggies are plummeting.

In recent years, winter tourism in Kyrgyzstan develops rapidly and becomes much more popular. There are more than 6 ski resorts with chair lifts and several small bases with regular lifts in Kyrgyzstan. Besides them, there are a lot of building projects for new, modern ski resorts in various regions of Kyrgyzstan. The mountain territory of Kyrgyzstan provides comprehensive opportunities for their development.