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.

ISET Policy Institute uses innovating approach to provide an analytical foundation to assess the indirect economic benefits of continued donor investment in the EWH corridor. ISET Policy Institute was contracted by the World Bank to assess the indirect economic benefits of the East-West Highway.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is critical to every developing county, and Georgia is no exception in this regard. Georgia wants to grow out of poverty and catch up with the economically more developed regions of the world – for this to happen, foreign resources are needed, in particular, if the domestic savings rate is as low as in Georgia.

In cooperation with the German Economic Team Georgia (GET Georgia) and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, ISET-PI is offering a course in Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) for Government Professionals. The course has been designed for economists in Georgian ministries who evaluate investment projects. Participants will learn how to design and conduct a CBA.

Until 2012, Georgia has been encouraging foreigners to purchase land, bring modern technology and management to the country’s ailing agricultural sector. On the one hand, Georgia’s extremely liberal approach was a boon for investment by global food industry giants such as Ferrero (4,000ha hazelnut plantation in Samegrelo) and Hipps (growing of organic apple and production of aroma and apple concentrate in Shida Kartli).