The ISET Economist

The Georgian Wine Industry: Recent Past and the Way Forward

Jacques Fleury — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:42:21 +0000

This is the second part of Jacques Fleury’s analysis. The first part was published last week in Georgia Today and on the ISET Economist Blog. PART B: SUGGESTIONS FOR A STRATEGY TO DEVELOP THE GEORGIAN WINE INDUSTRY, 2013-2017 1. Open new export markets We can safely assume that there is little awareness of the Georgian wines outside the ex-USSR region and the ex-USSR immigrant communities in the West. My own research in the largest import market in the US convinces me that less than 1% of the potential wine consumers are aware of a country called Georgia (they first think of the State of Georgia), producing wine and furthermore being at the origin of the wine history. Therefore, there is...

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Georgia Doubled the Area of Cultivated Agricultural Land in 2013

Juan Echanove — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:32:57 +0000

According to available data from the ministry of agriculture (MoA), by 1 May, 2013, 400,000 hectares have been cultivated this year in Georgia, which means a 100% increase compared to last year and the highest figure, by far, since 2005. In fact, this is the highest yearly increase in cultivated area Georgia recorded during the last decades. In total, Georgia has around 800,000 hectares of agricultural land (i.e. land suitable for cultivation). Table: Georgian agricultural land in cultivation (hectares), 1990-2013 Source: MoA No data by regions is currently available. In principle, one could expect an even increase across the country, given that the main driver of this is the MoA plowing...

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Does Georgia Need Its Own Currency?

Maya Grigolia — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:27:55 +0000

According to the Biblical Book of Genesis, Adam ate the forbidden apple, and now we all have to face the consequences: men have to work “by the sweat of their face” and women have “in pain to bring forth children”. Ever since this fateful event, known as the “Original Sin”, the human condition has become a mess, of which(perhaps) the state of the world economy provides a vivid illustration. When economists talk about the “original sin”, they have in mind a situation where a country or company is forced to borrow in a foreign currency. Thus, as they accumulate debt, their balance sheets reflect a so-called “aggregate currency mismatch” – while their liabilities are denominated in, say,...

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Georgian Wine Industry: Recent Past and the Way Forward

Jacques Fleury — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:55:34 +0000

We are very happy to host on our blog a commentary by Jacques Fleury, the person behind the resurrection of Borjomi and a key player in the Georgian wine industry. Jacques reflects on the experience of surviving the Russian embargo, on the one hand, and dealing with a series of heavy-handed and incompetent government interventions, on the other. In the second part of his comment, to be published next week, Jacques also proposes a new vision for the future of the Georgian wine industry, a future in which the government and the private sector work hand-in-hand to support small vine growers and promote Georgian wines to new markets. In his expert opinion, Georgia has the potential to get on...

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Georgia’s Education System Reforms: Corruption is Gone but Where is the Quality?

Admin — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:28:27 +0000

A country without oil needs smart people! This clearly applies to Georgia. Not endowed with substantial amounts of natural resources, Georgia totally depends on its human resources. Yet how good is the intellectual equipment of the Georgians that is so urgently required for driving the economic development of this country? When it comes to applied knowledge that can directly be utilized for economic activities, the picture is rather disenchanting. According to UNDP data, 81% of Georgian unemployed completed secondary or higher education. Yet as we wrote previously (“Jobless Growth in Georgia”), this rather indicates that the training provided by the formal education system is not very...

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What Can Be Achieved Through Better Education?

Florian Biermann — Fri, 10 May 2013 04:08:30 +0000

When speaking about unemployment, arguably the sorest problem in many market economies, “better education” is one of the standard remedies proposed by economists. This recommendation is given to rich and poor countries alike. Yet since I am in Georgia, I am increasingly skeptical about this recipe. To what extent can the education and training of people, or, to use the economic term, the accumulation of human capital, foster economic development? In Georgia, you may have studied law and you really know your trade, but there is an oversupply of lawyers, and your qualification does not help you much. Likewise, popular subjects like international relations do not yield high returns in the...

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