River Astarachay, which divides the Azerbaijani and Iranian nations, is no Rubicon, and its crossing over a newly constructed bridge by an Azərbaycan Dəmir Yolları’s GE/LKZ TE33A Evolution locomotive was hardly noticed by Georgian media. Yet, the project has immense implications for the future of transportation across the Caucasus.

It is widely recognized that education is the key to the future. In general, educated people have higher earnings and lower unemployment rates and highly-educated countries grow faster and innovate more than the other countries. Therefore, in the recent economic literature, education is considered as an investment good and look for the other investments, there are the costs and benefits of the investments in the education.

On Thursday, March 21, ISET hosted the Governor of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), Mr. Koba Gvenetadze, who delivered a profoundly informative lecture to the ISET Community. Mr. Gvenetadze covered important aspects of long-term development challenges facing the Georgian economy based on the accumulated experience of past development in the country.

Private Sector Development Policy Research Center is leading a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the Draft Law of Georgia on Entrepreneurs.

For a long time, it has been taboo to criticize the Orthodox Church in Georgia. Quite recently, however, the clergymen themselves lifted this taboo by publicly carrying out their conflicts. The visit of Pope Francis in September 2016 sparked a plethora of mutual accusations. Archpriest Davit Isakadze was against the Pope’s visit and blamed the two other Archpriests Toedore Gignadze and Aleksandre Galdava for being sectarians and church enemies.