Based on a report prepared by international auditors, DQS GmbH issued a three-year quality management Certificate of Conformity with ISO 9001:2015 standard requirements, which focus on improving business management and system performance.

Nikoloz M., 65, from the Imeretian village of Jikhaishi, invested around 15,000 GEL into his 8.5 ha hazelnut orchard in 2012, hoping that one day his initiative would turn into a profitable business. Nikoloz was on his way to success up until this year, before the stink bug, or Asian pharosana, as Georgians call it, appeared in his orchard. While Nikoloz expected to harvest 800 kg – 1000 kg of hazelnuts per ha, the stink bug infestation reduced his harvest by 30-35%, resulting in a loss of more than 1,000 GEL per ha.

ISET Policy Institute’s executive director, Lasha Labadze, attended the Vision Europe Summit (VES) "WINNERS AND LOSERS OF GLOBALISATION" which took place on 14 and 15 November 2017 in Turin. Launched in January 2015, Vision Europe is a joint project of leading European foundations and think tanks, who work together to investigate and debate matters, with the aim of informing and influencing policymakers and public opinion on some of the most pressing public policy challenges Europe faces today.

Georgia’s real GDP growth rate in Q3 reached 4.4% year-on-year, putting the country on the path to achieving 4.7% annual growth in 2017. Export, tourism and money transfer trends were behind the strong showing in Quarter 3. Supply side pressures will keep inflation above the 4% target in 2017.

ISET Professor Norberto Pignatti was invited by the Leibnitz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg to present his paper, ‘Job market outcomes of IDPs: the case of Georgia’.