The Government of Georgia (GoG) is currently preparing a new Local Self Government Code that will introduce significant modifications to the structure of local-self-governments (LSGs) in Georgia. Currently, Georgia has 63 LSGs (excluding Tbilisi and those areas not under Georgian control). If the proposed law is approved in Parliament, it would increase the number of LSG units dramatically: according to the GoG, by 2015 there would be close to 120 LSGs, and by 2018, approximately 240 LSGs overall. At time of writing, the draft Code was still under discussion by the GoG, prior to its introduction to Parliament.

The main goal of this project was to develop a neutral platform for regular discussion of Georgian government policies, donor-financed programs to promote inclusive growth A total of seven debates and thee project presentations were hosted at ISET as part of this project on topics ranging from farmer cooperation to family farming, to tourism, to vocational training systems, to SME development, to access to energy.

In Georgia, there is a clear policy trade-off between having smaller local self-government units (LSGs), which would be closer to voters and service users, and the higher overall costs of a larger number of LSGs. In November, 2012, the Georgian Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI) began to design a major policy initiative to reform the existing system of sub-national government in Georgia.

There are many pressing challenges and issues that command the attention of people interested in politics in Georgia. Some of these issues are emotionally charged, and there is not necessarily a consensus across society. However, there is one issue on which there should be a consensus, and it matters tremendously to the Georgian people.

We are very happy to post the second part of Jacques Fleury's commentary on the Georgian Wine Industry. In the first part, Jacques reflected on the experience of surviving the Russian embargo, on the one hand, and dealing with a series of heavy-handed and incompetent government interventions, on the other.