On Friday, June 5th ISET hosted Loredana Sorg, Mercator Fellow of International Affairs, who gave a presentation titled "The Georgian Hazelnut Value Chain and the Potential of Cooperatives". The objective of the study was to understand how and at which level value is added, to identify critical elements for a competitive hazelnut production in Georgia, and to reflect the potential of cooperatives for the development of the value chain and in particular for organic fair-trade hazelnuts.
The main objective of this project was to analyse the predicted potential for Georgia to specialize in the production of various agricultural goods. APRC assisted the German Economic Team within this project with regards to: searching, collecting and summarizing data, reviewing existing literature to study the potential of agricultural goods which have a relative comparative advantage compare to other.
According to Geostat’s rapid estimates, Georgia’s economy grew by 4.3% in March 2015. After the slowdown of the last several months, the growth rate in February and March looks very promising. In the first quarter of 2015, GDP growth amounted to 3.2%. In March, VAT payers’ turnover increased by 9.9% annually, and the total consumption of electricity increased by 6.2%.
ISET continues its Distinguished Professors Lecture Series in cooperation with Tbilisi State University (TSU). On Monday, June 1st, in this installment of the lecture series, ISET hosted Alexander Shengelaya, professor of TSU and University of Zurich. Prof. Shengelaya delivered a lecture titled “Amazing World of Superconductivity” accompanied by the actual experiment about superconductivity.
As planned, on May 16, 2015, ISET held an Admissions exam in English language and Mathematics. Exams were carried out simultaneously in Baku, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. The Mathematics exam assessed basic mathematical knowledge, thinking, and problem-solving skills. It covered topics from basic algebra, basic mathematics of finance, and basic calculus. The English exam assessed reading comprehension.