From July 31 to August 2, the APRC attended a workshop on Agritourism Development, an event organized by the Agrarian Committee of the Parliament of Georgia and UN Women. The APRC has been commissioned to conduct a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the Draft Law on Agritourism.

In a first for Georgia's education sector, the ISET MA Class of 2020 underwent its graduation ceremony entirely online. Guest speakers – including Minister of Education Mikheil Chkenkeli, ISET Governing Board Director Jean-Frederic Paulsen, and Deputy Swedish Ambassador Erik Illes – appeared over Zoom, followed by members of the Class of 2020 itself, and finishing with an address by Valedictorian Guram Lobzhanidze.

The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) has proved to be an effective policy-making tool and has been integrated into policy and legislative processes in an increasing number of countries. Over the last few years, the Government of Georgia has embarked on the process of institutionalizing RIA as an integral part of policy-making.

The consequences of COVID-19 on tourism and in the industrial and service sectors have been discussed broadly recently. However, little has been said about the current and future implications on the Georgian power sector. The worldwide pandemic has already had and is still expected to have, quite significant implications on both the demand and supply sides of the electricity market. Although at this stage, we cannot estimate the exact scale of the effects, it is possible to represent a general theoretical framework of the existing and potential impacts.

From April to July, ISET will lead an online training program in Regulatory Impact Assessment aimed at equipping the members of participating institutions with the required technical skills and understanding of the procedures associated with carrying out the RIA in accordance with the methodology set out by the government of Georgia in January 2020.