In 2007, an American businessman and friend of the then Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, was visiting Damascus before continuing his journey to Jerusalem. On the morning of his departure to Israel, the Mukhabarat, Syria’s secret service, knocked at his hotel room. The Syrian agents calmed down the scared businessman – he was not to be taken to some torture prison, of which there were many in Syria.

Giga Bokeria, the leader of the European Georgia opposition party, visited ISET to deliver a lecture on anti-corruption reforms in Georgia carried out by the United National Movement government of 2003-2012. Bokeria, a UNM member until 2017, played an integral role in the Rose Revolution, which ousted the late Eduard Shevardnadze, under whose tenure Georgia had become wracked by institutional corruption.

By the end of March, food prices increased by 4.4% y/y (that is, compared to March 2016) and by 1.6% m/m (that is, compared to February 2017). On a biweekly basis, the biggest price increases happened for coriander (40.3%), cucumber (30.0%), and eggplant (14.9%). Carrots, onions, and tomatoes, on the contrary, became cheaper and cost 22.1%, 24.4%, and 15.0% less, respectively.

On Friday, March 31, Aleksi Aleksishvili, CEO and Chairman of the board of the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG), awarded need-based scholarships to two first-year students – Mariam Tsulukidze and Zaza Barbakadze.

Private Sector Development Policy Research Center is leading a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the Draft Law of Georgia on Entrepreneurs.