On 18 April 2016 ISET hosted Dr. Donghyun Park, a principal economist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), who presented his team’s research: the Impact of China’s Slowdown on the World Economy. The talk was attended by ISET students and faculty, as well as representatives of Georgia’s leading businesses and business associations.

Georgia’s population is rapidly aging because of low fertility, improvements in the healthcare system, and labor migration. The challenges of living in an older society were discussed in a working group format as part of the “National Dialogue on Georgian Demographic Security Priorities”, April 18-19, which was attended by ISET-PI’s Maka Chitanava and Lasha Labadze. This UNFPA-supported dialog was initiated by the Georgian Parliament’s Healthcare and Social Policy Committee.

On April 15, ISET Policy Institute researcher Lasha Labadze attended a student conference on the topic of “Tourism Development Perspectives in Georgia and World Experience”. Organized by the Research and Planning Department of the Georgian National Tourism Administration, and supported by ISET along with other partners, the event aimed to involve students in improving and solving the issues that the country is facing today in the tourism industry.

Mr. Livny chose to devote his TEDx talk to the challenge of bringing education and light to Georgia’s remote villages. He told the story of Dzevri, a tiny village in Imereti, which used the help of an American couple, Cathy McLain and Roy Southworth, to revolutionize the local school. In just three years, college enrolment for local school graduates went from zero to almost 100%.

In March 2016, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri stood at 3.27GEL, which is 5% lower month-on-month (m/m, that is compared to the previous month), but 6.9% higher year-on-year (y/y, that is compared to the same month of last year).