ISET-PI and GET have predicted the potential for Georgia to specialize in the production of energy-intensive goods such as: Aluminum (unwrought, bars and rods, foil), Zinc (Unwrought) and Fertilizer mixtures.

Yerevan is presently rife with protest. Dubbed “Electric Yerevan,” the protests are aptly named considering that they began as a result of Armenia’s government succumbing to demands by the country’s electricity distribution monopoly (Electric Network of Armenia (ENA)) to raise regulated tariffs by 16.7% as of 1 August 2015.

On Monday, May 11th, Professor of Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) Dr. Mette Helene Bjørndal gave a public lecture at ISET conference hall. Prof. Bjørndal held the presentation titled “Insights into the Nordic Energy Market”. The main aspects of the presentation were to review the structure, main characteristics of the Nordic power market, and peculiarities of its integration into other European electricity markets.

On April 17th, ISET was honored to welcome Her Excellency Ms. Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA), a leading international institution in the energy sector. Prior to becoming Executive Director of IEA, Ms. van der Hoeven served as the Minister of Economic Affairs, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, and a member of the parliament of the Netherlands.

Economists disagree whether it was a good decision to reestablish the Georgian competition authority. When some years ago it was removed, the underlying logic was that a non-existing authority cannot be corrupt, and, more importantly, cannot harm the economy through misguided decisions. Assuming that corruption will not be a problem for the competition authority, neither now nor in the future, regulating markets is still a highly delicate issue which yields many possibilities to go wrong.