02
April
2014
On March 31, 2014, ISET hosted Dr. Joseph Tham of Duke University, who is currently collaborating with USAID Georgia. He provided a summary of the basic principles of project appraisal and discussed the applications of Cost-Benefit Analysis in the USAID/India Fiscal Management Reform Project.
10
February
2014
On 3-7 February 2014 a group of ISET-PI researchers was trained in Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). The main goal of implementing RIA is to ensure that the benefits of a regulation exceed its costs for society as a whole.
20
December
2013
On the first of January, Armenia will adopt an entirely new pension system. This radical reform addresses two problems: widespread poverty among the elderly and a lack of capital in the economy. The very same problems also exist in Georgia, where the standard governmental pension currently is 150 lari, and where the economy is suffering from high capital costs due to notoriously low saving rates.
15
July
2013
On Monday evening I am taking the express train from Tbilisi to Samtredia with my wife and two kids (business class, 120GEL). We plan to stay overnight in a little family hotel (40GEL), and at 6.30 am we’ll board the Wizz Air flight to Katowice, Poland, at the cost of €40 a person and €35 per suitcase (one way).
28
June
2013
The Georgian economy faces many challenges, not least of which is access to finance and the extremely high cost of financing private enterprises. With the cost of borrowing (real interest rate) reaching 17.3% on average in April 2013, businesses find it very difficult to function, let alone invest in innovative technologies, long-term growth, and development.
