On Friday, June 5th ISET hosted Loredana Sorg, Mercator Fellow of International Affairs, who gave a presentation titled "The Georgian Hazelnut Value Chain and the Potential of Cooperatives". The objective of the study was to understand how and at which level value is added, to identify critical elements for a competitive hazelnut production in Georgia, and to reflect the potential of cooperatives for the development of the value chain and in particular for organic fair-trade hazelnuts.

Most development practitioners subscribe to the view that vibrant small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) are crucial for the health of a country’s economy. The SME sector is crucial, the argument goes because it creates employment and serves as a hotbed of entrepreneurial talent. Additionally, SMEs are often seen as a source of new, fast-growing industries, contributing to a price-reducing and quality-improving competition with large and old firms that tend to dominate markets in small countries such as Georgia.

APRC conducted a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on insurance reform in Georgia and provided recommendations on policy options for developing a sustainable agricultural insurance market in the country.

ISET is proud to announce that on Wednesday, May 28th, 2015 Lasha Labadze, Deputy Director of ISET Policy Institute, defended his Ph.D. thesis at Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Economics and Business. Lasha Labadze is the first ISET alumna who graduated from the TSU Ph.D. program in economics. His paper titled “Modeling effects of an investment in Georgian Agricultural Sector” was supervised by TSU Professor Eteri Kharaishvili, Head of Microeconomics Department.

On May 20-22, 2015 Lasha Labadze, Deputy Director of ISET Policy Institute attended the Third Global Think Tank Summit in Manila, Philippines. The Summit was co-hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ADB Institute, and the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program of the University of Pennsylvania. The general topic of the summit was Inclusive Knowledge Partnerships for Development and it comprised panel discussions on best practices and innovative knowledge partnerships.