This Wednesday, February 10th, Aleksi Aleksishvili, CEO and Chairman of the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG), awarded need-based scholarships to two first-year students – Kristine Bakradze and Tinatin Mumladze. As ISET is a premier graduate education and research institution in the South Caucasus, producing dozens of top-notch young economists every year, PMCG scholarship is a great investment not only in the human capital of Kristine and Tinatin but also in the future of Georgia and the South Caucasus generally.

There is a lot of affinity among Estonia and Georgia, two tiny nations for centuries caught between the Russian rock and the German or Ottoman/Persian hard place. Common fate may be, indeed, the reason for Georgia’s topping the list of Estonian development cooperation priorities. Georgia is the largest recipient of Estonia’s bilateral aid, most of which is about sharing the Estonian experience of establishing itself as a new European democracy and a unique place to do business.

The project supports the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia to identify priority sectors/subsectors of the economy to target foreign investment. The sectors prioritized have potential for an increase in productivity and export to the EU market and therefore are potentially attractive to foreign investors.

Once again, Georgians across the country are preparing for the holiday season, making travel plans, crushing walnuts for gozinaki, and buying gifts for their friends and families. Gifts are an important part of celebrating the New Year and Christmas, signifying the importance of friendship and allowing us to treat our loved ones to something to start a brand new year in style.

Georgia has considerable deposits of metal (for instance, manganese, copper, and gold) and non-metal resources, however, our current regulations do not encourage investment while at the same time failing to generate significant fiscal revenues.