Taking care of the environment around us is our collective and individual responsibility. On October 20, a large clean-up event was held in Mtskheta initiated by the International School of Economics (ISET). ISET academic staff and students actively participated in the event. The location was chosen for its touristic importance, as Mtskheta is a place that attracts many visitors every year.

This Thursday, October 11, Davit Lezhava, Public Policy Sector Director of the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG), awarded need-based scholarships to three second-year MA students – Giga Gotsiridze, Ia Tchankvetadze, and Nino Shoshiashvili.

On October 4, 2018, the ISET’s Salome Gelashvili and Pati Mamardashvili gave a presentation during an inception workshop, “Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the Draft Law on Windbreaks”. This RIA was commissioned to the APRC team by REC Caucasus and implemented with financial support from the IFAD in the framework of the AMMAR project.

This report covers the process and results from the value chain analysis conducted on the hazelnut sector in West Georgia. The study presents a basis to shape interventions of the forthcoming ‘Phase II: Fairtrade & Organic Hazelnut Value Chain Development for Small Farmers in Western Georgia’ project, which is to be implemented by the Consortium (ELKANA, HEKS/EPER, ANKA and PAKKA) with the financial support of DANIDA.

Agricultural production has decreased by 0.8% in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. In spite of decline in agricultural production, FDI in agriculture has increased. While FDI in agriculture is relatively low compared to the other sectors of Georgian economy, it should be noted that, agricultural FDI in the second quarter of 2018 reaches its maximum for the last three years.