My dad used to tell me stories about the exciting period when the Soviet Union’s economy started faltering and public resources were suddenly up for grabs in the chaos of capitalism that emerged. While this period is usually associated with the appearance of crafty oligarchs, in Georgia also less wily businessmen could exploit the circumstances, among them many Turks.

Teimuraz Gogsadze, a graduate of ISET's Class of 2011, joined the International Taxation Division of the Tax Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance of Georgia in May 2011. He worked on such interesting projects as the double taxation avoidance agreement and agreements on mutual administrative assistance in customs matters, gaining invaluable experience at the Ministry of Finance. Having spent almost a year at the Ministry and inspired by the experience regarding taxation matters, Teimuraz decided to continue his studies with a PhD program. In April 2012, he joined the PhD program in Economics at the University of Leicester, where his supervisors were Professors Sanjit Dhami and Ali al-Nowaihi.

The Forum took place on 29 November 2016 in the framework of the EU-funded European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) in order to discuss some the key challenges Georgia’s agricultural cooperatives face with regard to access to finance. Please see the conference programme and presentations (listed below).

Spending a big chunk of their precious summer vacation in Armenia was not exactly my kids’ dream. Their wish list included far more exotic destinations in Africa, the Far East, and Europe’s leading capitals – Vienna, Paris, or London. And, yet, it did not take too much convincing for them to go on a one-week trial at TUMO’s summer school for creativity in Yerevan.

Recently, the ISET Economist Blog wrote about the cooperative “Shamatia.” Their strawberry seedlings started to fade soon after planting. The cooperative consulted with different experts in the country to find the reason, and the solution for the problem, without success. Only after sending sample seedlings abroad was the cause of the problem revealed. In the meantime, however, the cooperative experienced losses of 15,000 GEL.