On October 11, 2013, ISET was pleased to host Swiss Ambassador to Georgia H.E. Günther Bächler. In introducing his presentation the ambassador outlined his interesting career track, which started with a BA in Art and History of Art and then moved to conflict studies and diplomacy.

In the first part of our article, we pointed out that electricity generation by hydropower is subject to strong seasonal variations. We argued that the seasonality of hydropower reduces the profitability of new plants, as they deliver the highest output in the time of the year when electricity is relatively cheap anyway, while they produce rather little when electricity is expensive.

Recently, the Georgian media abounded with alarming reports about a slowdown of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Georgia. Indeed, economic figures seem to support the view that there may be a turn in the FDI activity. The graph shows FDI in the first two quarters of each year from 2005 to 2013.

In our two-part article, we discuss how combining wind and hydropower can help the Republic of Georgia to achieve energy independence and become a net energy exporter.

The purpose of the Financial Soundness Indicators for Investment Climate Assessment is to present a birds eye view of the Georgia’s financial system, its’ standing relative to other countries in the world and the countries in Europe/Central Asia developing cohort. After the first round of successful cooperation between ISET Policy institute and ADB on the previous FSI project, ISET-PI was granted the second contract for conducting a joint study together with GeoStat and NBG.