On October 2, 2018, Georgian Water and Power (GWP) opened a new hydropower dam in Bodorna (Dusheti region). The construction of the new dam started in December 2017, with the support of the Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment and Development Bank (DEG), for a total investment of 10 million GEL.

Since 2012, when the political party Georgian Dream took leadership of the country’s governance, economic [real] growth reached its highest rate in 2017 (5.0%). The drivers of this growth were construction (11.2%), hotels and restaurants (11.2%), and the financial sector (9.2%). However, a few sectors of the economy declined in 2017, and one was agriculture (-2.7%).

About half of the world’s population are living in cities. Rapid urbanization puts pressure on urban infrastructure and labor markets, also contributes to environmental degradation, and speeds up the instability of construction projects and dwellings. Climate change is yet another cause that will harm the stability of cities. A solid and global plan on how to tackle urban planning is therefore much needed, which is why the New Urban Agenda was endorsed by the UN in 2016.

Just like the World Bank’s Doing Business, Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, and many other international rankings, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) Transition Reports have typically carried a very positive message for Georgia, Eastern Europe’s poster child of transition since the Rose Revolution of 2003. This year’s Transition Report, launched last week in Tbilisi by Alexander Plekhanov, EBRD’s Deputy Director of Research, is somewhat exceptional in this regard.

On November 10, ISET hosted an EBRD group with a keynote speaker, Alexander Plekhanov, Deputy Director of Research at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. He presented the EBRD’s Transition Report, entitled “Transition for All: Equal Opportunities in an Unequal World”.