After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent state underwent serious turmoil, including civil war, deteriorated governance, depreciation of critical infrastructure, and endemic corruption. But after the Rose Revolution in 2003, the country began to implement major political and economic reforms

Georgian media is full of stories about nepotism and the funny justifications of those involved: When Irakli Garibashvili, still being Minister of the Interior, was confronted with nepotism allegations, he replied: “Don’t you know that a relative of your wife is not your relative?”

On Thursday, May 14th, ISET hosted Helena Schweiger, Senior Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at the EBRD, London. Ms. Schweiger presented her recent paper “The impact of armed conflict on firms’ performance and perceptions”, co-authored with Carly Petracco. This study explores the short-run impact of the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia on firms’ performance and their perceptions of the business environment.

On Wednesday, April 15th, ISET hosted Archil Kbilashvili, former Prosecutor General of Georgia, currently a Partner of Mgaloblishvili-Kipiani-Dzidziguri (MKD) law firm. Mr. Kbilashvili delivered a presentation regarding the principles of law and order to the ISET community.

On March 12, ISET hosted the Ukrainian delegation within the scope of the project “Ukraine out of Crises through Dialogue” implemented by the Caucasian House. The main purpose of the meeting was to share the experience of Georgian economic transformation throughout the last decade. It was the second meeting in the framework of this project. ISET hosted the first delegation in November 2014.