“It is an honor for me to be standing here, at ISET, in the best school of economics in the region” – with these words, Nodar Khaduri, the Minister of Finance of Georgia, started his presentation on March 10, 2014.

The minister provided a brief summary of the main Georgian macroeconomic parameters and then went on to introduce the Socio-economic Development Strategy of Georgia, “GEORGIA 2020”. He spoke about the importance of this plan and highlighted that the main target of this strategy is inclusive growth. The strategy itself is at the draft level and will be discussed in society (the draft version is available to everyone) before being made final. Minister Khaduri asked the ISET students for their active participation in such discussions.

The minister explained several topics from the strategy. The first was employment. The unemployment rate is currently 15% and, according to the strategy, it should be decreased by 20% to 12%. He also spoke about the structure of employment and mentioned that majority of employment in Georgia comes from self-employment in agriculture, which is not a positive fact. The minister also touched upon the current situation in Ukraine. Today, 13% of Georgian exports go to Ukraine and Russia, so a conflict between those two countries would negatively affect Georgian exports. The minister also explained the possibilities of how Georgia can reach its targeted GDP per capita of approximately GEL 13,000 by the year 2020.

Minister Khaduri listed the main constraints for Georgian growth as low competitiveness, low human capital, the availability of financial resources, and outdated machinery. He broadly reviewed each of these issues and provided some ways how the problems could be overcome.

ISET would like to thank Minister Khaduri for providing a very thought-provoking lecture.