On April 10, ISET students delivered yet another policy seminar. A presentation entitled “Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) & Economic Growth. Case of Georgia” was delivered by Givi Gujaraidze, Tinatin Mumladze, Kristine Gureshidze, and Shota Bakhuashvili under the supervision of Eric Livny, President of ISET, and Yaroslava Babych, Head of Macroeconomic Policy Research Center at ISET Policy Institute. The presentation was mostly oriented towards the case of Georgia. It aimed to highlight the importance of FDI for the Georgian economy and show the impact of FDI on the growth rates of different sectors of the economy. The presentation provided information about the country’s investment environment: why is Georgia an attractive country for foreign investors and why is it easy to do business in Georgia. Additionally, the last part of the presentation discussed examples of successful FDI projects in different areas.

According to the presentation, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has recently become more crucial, and this statement most of all applies to developing countries that are striving towards the modernization of their industries and support their socio-economic developments. Many policymakers and academics agree that FDI can have a long-term beneficial impact on a country's development since it is generally directly linked to productive investments. FDI may also assist developing countries through the provision of capital with creating new job opportunities, through the inflow of technology, managerial know-how, and marketing skills, and through its impact on the development of efficient markets.

Finally, the presentation also discussed the reasons why it is profitable to invest in different sectors of the Georgian economy and accordingly evaluated successful projects such as the Dariali HPP, the Hualing Group Project, Heidelberg Cement, and GEBRÜDER WEISS GEORGIA. Due to these projects, production, employment, and workers’ earnings increased. So far, the increase has been at a small rate, but step by step this will improve the economic situation in Georgia.