On October 20, members of the ISET community attended a guest lecture on international taxation from Ms. Femke van der Zeijden from PricewaterhouseCoopers Netherlands’ office. Ms. Zeijdenhas introduced issues of international taxation from a legal perspective. This was particularly useful and interesting for the audience as it primarily consisted of economists, for whom the legal aspects and problems of different taxation policies are not well known.

ISET continues to challenge its BA students to think about economics and apply knowledge gained during their studies in everyday life. On October 19, 2017, Eric Livny, President of ISET and BA Program Director, conducted a very intriguing discussion on how to start a business in Georgia and what factors one has to initially take into account.

Stanford University has recently started using a new heat recovery system. A large research campus such as Stanford University, requires a substantial amount of energy to operate, resulting in a significant amount of Greenhouse Gas emissions and high operating costs, which makes the management of resources a priority.

On the 18th of October, ISET Policy Institute together with its partner organizations: Georgian Farmers’ Association (GFA), Civil Development Agency (CiDA), Export Development Association (EDA), and Association Atinati presented a new project: Food and Agriculture SME Support Initiative (FASSI).

Dr. Tamar Khuntsaria of the European Union Studies Association and an Associate Professor of the University of Georgia visited ISET to talk to the institute’s students about relations between the European Union and Georgia, with a focus on trade and economic issues. Dr. Khuntsaria began by explaining the process through which the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area was signed between Georgia and the EU as part of the Association Agreement between the two. She described how the DCFTA removes customs tariffs and quotas, and liberalizes trade in goods and services over a broad spectrum of economic-related issues, including food safety, intellectual property rights and financial matters.