Recently, the Georgian media abounded with alarming reports about a slowdown of foreign direct investments (FDI) in Georgia. Indeed, economic figures seem to support the view that there may be a turn in the FDI activity. The graph shows FDI in the first two quarters of each year from 2005 to 2013.

In our two-part article, we discuss how combining wind and hydropower can help the Republic of Georgia to achieve energy independence and become a net energy exporter.

The purpose of the Financial Soundness Indicators for Investment Climate Assessment is to present a birds eye view of the Georgia’s financial system, its’ standing relative to other countries in the world and the countries in Europe/Central Asia developing cohort. After the first round of successful cooperation between ISET Policy institute and ADB on the previous FSI project, ISET-PI was granted the second contract for conducting a joint study together with GeoStat and NBG.

The purpose of this report is to present the Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI) data in a way that is accessible and easy to interpret by a wide array of stakeholders, and help them analyze the economic implications underlying the FSI concepts.

The Government of Georgia (GoG) is currently preparing a new Local Self Government Code that will introduce significant modifications to the structure of local-self-governments (LSGs) in Georgia. Currently, Georgia has 63 LSGs (excluding Tbilisi and those areas not under Georgian control). If the proposed law is approved in Parliament, it would increase the number of LSG units dramatically: according to the GoG, by 2015 there would be close to 120 LSGs, and by 2018, approximately 240 LSGs overall. At time of writing, the draft Code was still under discussion by the GoG, prior to its introduction to Parliament.