Supported by Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ISET’s collaboration with the Norwegian School of Economics (Norges Handelshøyskole – NHH) started more than four years ago with regular faculty visits by some of the most senior NHH scholars, professors Einar Hope and Rognvaldur Hannesson. The main goal of the new 3-year phase, to be financed by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (Senter for internasjonalisering av utdanning (SIU)), is to develop a dual degree program in energy and environmental economics.

Georgia is consistently performing very well in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” (DB) ranking 24th country globally in 2016: DB ranking is made up of several different indicators. Georgia only ranked 62nd for getting electricity (GE). GE indicator is a proxy for electricity supply quality to the business.

As a freshwater resource-rich Caucasian country, Georgia is well-positioned to produce high quality trout in its mountains. However, the Georgian trout sector is struggling and faces a number of constraints to further development.

Established almost eight years ago, ISET Policy Institute’s Khachapuri Index was inspired by the famous Big Mac Index of The Economist. The Big Mac Index ranks countries on the cost – translated into US dollars – of the Big Mac hamburger sold at local McDonald's restaurants. We rank Georgia’s major cities on the cost of cooking one portion of Imeretian Khachapuri.

According to Micklewright (Macroeconomics and Data on Children, UNICEF 2000), a share of 7% of the Georgian gross domestic product of the year 1991 accounted for education. In 1994, this number had fallen to 1%. As Micklewright comments, such a dramatic decrease in educational expenditures was never seen before nor afterward in the history of any country. Recovery after the crisis was a long process.