On Tuesday, May 24, Dr. David Ubilava from the University of Sidney gave a presentation entitled "The El Niño Southern Oscillation and Economic Growth”. Dr. Ubilava started the presentation with the definitions of such phenomena such as climate anomalies and weather and emphasized the importance of weather as a factor in agricultural production.

Looking down from the famous cross-path of the Georgian Military Highway, you will notice a beautiful little lake that was not there six years ago. The lake is a small reservoir that supplies power to the 8 MW Aragvi HPP. On May 19, the ISET community and guests from professional circles in the energy sector heard the story behind this hydropower plant in a seminar entitled “Small Hydropower – what’s special about it and how to implement it?” delivered by Hanness Posch, a civil engineer and entrepreneur working on hydropower projects in Georgia.

On Wednesday, May 18 Hans Timmer, Chief Economist of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) at the World Bank, paid a visit to ISET. He delivered a presentation entitled “Economic Outlook for the South Caucasus”, transmitting the idea that the countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA), including Georgia, are transitioning to a situation – against the backdrop of a weakening global economy and volatility in international financial markets – which is called 'New Normal' and is characterized by the slow trend growth of global trade, low commodity prices, and less abundant availability of international liquidity.

This article is about a highly technical matter. To avoid losing all our readers in the very beginning, let us start with a famous doctrine by Montesquieu: Les lois inutiles affaiblissent les lois nécessaires. This principle, literally meaning “useless laws weaken the necessary laws”, should always be kept in mind by lawmakers and politicians. If a regulation is not beneficial, then it is almost surely beneficial to get rid of the regulation. Some great Georgians endorsed this principle, like Kakha Bendukidze, who is widely praised for having erased many unnecessary rules from Georgia’s legal codes.

We continue to track the success of our graduates and would like to congratulate Ivane Pirveli from ISET class 2011 on his latest achievement. Currently serving as Deputy Head of the Gas Department at the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC), Ivane had been recently offered a prestigious position of a Seconded National Expert on Georgian energy law with the Austria-based Energy Community Secretariat.