We were thrilled to see Salome Gelashvili, head of the ISET-PI Agricultural Policy Research Center (APRC), actively participate in a UNDP Georgia online discussion. During the virtual roundtable (entitled Local Economic Development and Business Friendly Environment for Municipalities), a variety of notable international speakers, particularly utilizing Czech expertise, came together to consider business development, combatting the rural-urban divide, and the effect of COVID-19 on the informal sector. Working under typical macro socioeconomic perspectives, the experts also looked into the significance of development at a municipal level and the importance of business-friendly municipalities.

Salome joined the panel discussion and presented views based on her extensive experience in the public sector and from various ISET research alongside ISET’s core indexes, which play a key role in gauging business in Georgian municipalities and help highlight burgeoning issues in the business environment. She focused on the research conducted at the municipal level and the importance of the availability of municipal statistical data.

The panel discussion was thereafter followed by a Q&A session, where the stakeholders discussed the procedures needed for establishing a Business-Friendly Certification program, the data requirements to assess the business environment in municipalities, as well as the availability of local human resources.

Check out the following link for further details on the UNDP Partnership for SDGs.