On October 20, members of the ISET community attended a guest lecture on international taxation from Ms. Femke van der Zeijden from PricewaterhouseCoopers Netherlands’ office. Ms. Zeijdenhas introduced issues of international taxation from a legal perspective. This was particularly useful and interesting for the audience as it primarily consisted of economists, for whom the legal aspects and problems of different taxation policies are not well known.

Dr. Tamar Khuntsaria of the European Union Studies Association and an Associate Professor of the University of Georgia visited ISET to talk to the institute’s students about relations between the European Union and Georgia, with a focus on trade and economic issues. Dr. Khuntsaria began by explaining the process through which the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area was signed between Georgia and the EU as part of the Association Agreement between the two. She described how the DCFTA removes customs tariffs and quotas, and liberalizes trade in goods and services over a broad spectrum of economic-related issues, including food safety, intellectual property rights and financial matters.

On October 10, 2017, Professor Hans Wiesmeth challenged ISET BA students to think about possible solutions to environmental issues, more specifically, how the country can deal with beverage packaging, which is a global environmental issue, with 1 billion plastic bottles produced each day (more than ten thousand every second). Only about 10% of these bottles are currently recovered and recycled.

In the world of the 21st century, the number of people living without electricity in their homes is 1.3 billion. Even among those who have access, many do not own basic assets such as refrigerators, motorized transport, or washing machines. However, it is anticipated that over the next several decades, wide-scale poverty alleviation programs, as well as continued economic growth, will lift the incomes of many of the world’s poor.

“You need to think carefully before you jump into this deep sea,” said Professor Daniel Levy at the very beginning of a presentation entitled “Why can a Ph.D. be bad for you?”. While this statement sounded frightening to those who were planning to pursue a Ph.D. or other further studies, it appeared to be more bemusing for others who were not considering a career in academia.