On August 20, 2015, a strong hailstorm hit Georgia, devastating crops and infrastructure in eastern Kakheti. In Kvareli alone, the hailstorm destroyed about 1,300ha of Saperavi and 1,000ha of Rkatsiteli grapes, affecting more than 500 families. This was only one in a string of natural disasters striking Georgian farmers in recent years.

ISET Policy Institute is the only member think tank of Asian Think Tanks Network from Georgia. The network involves cooperation among key think tanks in Asia and the Pacific to share knowledge on development experiences and policy lessons. Its members are Asian think tanks working on sustainable development and inclusive growth.

The objective of this activity is to design, develop and implement an operational the Georgian Reform Progress Tracking System (GRPTS) that informs grant beneficiaries on how new reform efforts of the Georgian government have progressed against their intended objectives and continue to improve development outcomes.

For resilient economic development in Georgia, the country should encourage exports of higher-value added goods. In this report, ISET-PI and GET have found that Georgia might be able to develop a comparative advantage when it comes to exporting higher-value energy-intensive products. According to projections of its electricity network operator, Georgia will develop excess capacities of low-cost electricity in the next decade.

An average Georgian household spends more than 40% of its budget on food. It, therefore, stands to reason that Georgian consumers are quite sensitive to food prices, which may be very good news considering recent developments in global commodity markets. According to the latest World Bank’s Food Price Watch, “international food prices declined by 14% between August 2014 and May 2015, sliding into a five-year low.”