ISET is happy to announce that Mariam Menteshashvili was promoted to a new position at the Georgian State Electrosystem (GSE). Mariam graduated from ISET with a concentration in International Trade in 2011. Before her promotion, she had been working in the International Project Coordination and Accounting Department of GSE. In this department, her responsibilities were to prepare tender documentation and monitor agreements concerning projects.

Consumer Demand Analysis for a Private Company, JSC Sarajishvili. 2015 increase in alcohol excise taxes has led to price increase on majority of JSC Sarajishvili’s products. As a consequence the company experienced sharp decline in sales of its products.

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.

Distinguished ISET graduate and recent recipient of a Doctorate of Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Salome Baslandze has recently been awarded a tenure track professorship at the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) in Rome, Italy. There she will be teaching classes and continuing her research on growth, technological change, firm dynamics, and the dynamics of innovation.

On November 24, the ISET Policy Institute hosted an ENPARD workshop representing all four consortia (CARE, OXFAM, Mercy Corps, and PIN). The workshop featured Michaela Garguláková from People In Need (PIN) who talked about the Monitoring and Evaluation system and gave a presentation about the monitoring indicators of the ENPARD project.