georgia.usaid.gov
USAID/Caucasus Regional
Mission Director: Robert Wilson
USAID/Tbilisi
Department of State
Washington, DC 20521-7060
Tel: 995-32-938-950
Fax: 995-32-001013 |
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Overview
Georgia is an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism and a gateway for energy resources from the region to Europe and beyond. Since the Rose Revolution of 2003, the Georgian government has carried out a number of democratic and economic reforms aimed at raising the living standards of its citizens. With the support of the U.S., other members of the international community, and the commitment of Georgia’s leadership and people, Georgia can become a vibrant, free-market, and stable democracy. Towards this aim, the USAID program in Georgia focuses on good governance and the rule of law, economic growth and energy security, health, and education.
Georgia in Action
 Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator Inaugurates New USAID/Georgia Headquarters
Celebrating 15 years of partnership with the Georgian people, USAID launched the opening of its new building on the embassy compound on July 23rd... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Energy
 Georgia’s SMEs Grow with Increased Access to Financing
“We welcome all of those on holiday to relax and enjoy the atmosphere of Bakuriani at our guesthouse,” says Manana Janidze, greeting a visitor at the entrance of the newly upgraded and renovated Hotel X... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Innovative Training Helps Entrepreneurship Flourish
Nugzar Tateshvili, the founder and acting chairman of the Akhaltsikhe Center for Social Development in Samtskhe-Javakheti, Georgia, recently launched a new training course to support business education in his region... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Education
 Exchange Spurs Environmental Health Activism in Georgia
USAID’s Community Connections (CC) program alumnus Karlo Amirgulashvili, head of the Georgian Nature Lovers Society, credits his three-week CC visit to Ohio with helping him understand the importance of raising community awareness... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Environment
 Photo Exhibition Draws Attention to South Caucasus Water Issues
The “Water Without Borders” photo contest, held in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, was recently organized by the USAID South Caucasus Water Program and Eurasia Partnership Foundation to draw public attention to transboundary water issues... Read More ...
Related Items: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Environment
 Consulting Support Yields Fast Growth for Construction Firm
Today, Tegika Universal, Ltd. is one of the most successful construction companies in Kutaisi, Georgia. Just a year ago, however, it had faced its share of challenges... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Civil Registry Gains Momentum in Georgia
The Civil Registry Agency (CRA) provides Georgian citizens with essential documents such as passports, birth certificates, and national identification cards. USAID support to the CRA—through its Civil Registry Reform II activity... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Institutional Reform
 Program Matches Student Ambition with Market Realities
“The project developed by the students was impeccable! It encompassed all aspects of a business plan including marketing strategy, consumer analysis, operations planning, and the financial status of the company”... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Education
 Small Business Services Help Launch Raspberry Farm
Musician Beglar Mikeladze didn’t set out to build a business when he planted his first raspberry plants in Adlia, Georgia. “At first I started to grow raspberries just to meet some family needs... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Georgian Wines Arrive in U.S. Supermarkets in April
When Russia imposed an embargo on the import of Georgian wines in March 2006, the country lost its traditional and most important export market, where roughly 89 percent of Georgian wines exported were sold... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Expanding International Markets for Georgian Artisans
Last summer, the Georgia Textile Group (GTG) participated in the 4th Annual Santa Fe International Folk Art Market with support from the Crafts Center at the USAID–funded Georgia Employment and Infrastructure Initiative (GEII) and the Ramsay Merriam Fund... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Guria Farmers Establish Links with Lithuanian Businesses
USAID works with farmers and farming communities throughout Georgia to identify alternative export markets and establish business-to-business linkages... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Georgian Farmers Combine Efforts to Generate Viable Incomes
“In strength there is unity.” Koba Tsertsvadze, a 41-year-old farmer from the village of Tkhinvali in Guria addressed visitors with these words as he and other farmers fenced plots of land on a tea plantation in his village... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Harmonizing Water Quality Monitoring in the South Caucasus
The USAID South Caucasus Water Program is facilitating the harmonization of water-quantity and water-quality monitoring capabilities among Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia... Read More ...
Related Items: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Environment
 Social Services Help Georgia’s Vulnerable Families
The Kandavadze family was once in dire need of money and forced to sell their big apartment in Tbilisi and move to Rustavi... Read More ...
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 Youth Volunteers Help Spread News on Women’s Issues
Marina Modebadze, Chair of the Society of Women Democrats and 2006 Community Connections alumnae, has long been concerned about the lack of women’s involvement in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region’s politics and society... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Social Programs
 Exchange Provides Hotelier with Knowledge to Expand
Gogi Gogitidze, the owner of a small hotel in the seaside town of Kobuleti, Georgia credits USAID’s Community Connections (CC) Exchange Program with increasing the scope of his business... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Public, Businesses Profit from Public Registry Reforms
Giorgi Goglidze was skeptical when he heard a public service announcement on television saying that he could call the Information Center of the National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) from the comfort of his home... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Institutional Reform
 Program Places College Grads with Prospective Employers
Every morning Khatia Jambazishvili hurries to her new job. She is one of 35 young people who received permanent jobs after participating in Georgia’s Youth National Internship Program... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Education
 Georgia Eases Restrictions on Foreign Documents
“Just use it!” responded an official from the Georgian Ministry of Justice when Vakhtang Zaalishvili, legal advisor to a British company, asked what to do with a document that had been notarized in Great Britain... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Rule of Law
 Georgian Delicacies Debut at 2007 Fancy Food Show
Until now, American consumers may have known little about Georgia, and less about the country’s foods and wines. Yet Georgian exporters are hopeful that the U.S. market—where consumers are interested in exploring new products... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Georgian City Market Brought Back to Life
On June 1, the Ninotsminda farmers’ market opened for business for the first time in fifteen years. The local community, USAID, the Governor’s office and implementer the Urban Institute (UI) participated in the opening ceremony... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Infrastructure
 Participatory Planning Improves Community Quality of Life
For the first time in 15 years, the citizens of Poti, the third largest city in Georgia, can look forward to having a reliable supply of water—the end result of a participatory planning process that began five years ago... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Democracy
 U.S. Host Delegation Pays Reciprocal Visit to Georgia
The cross-cultural ties that USAID’s Community Connections (CC) program creates were demonstrated in late June when a delegation from the Center for International Understanding (CIU) paid a visit to Georgia... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Democracy
 Georgia Celebrates Start of Industrial Cheese Production
The opening of two modern cheese plants in the adjacent villages of Orlovka and Spasovka on June 21 turned into a real celebration for farmers in Georgia’s Javakheti region. For them, the event not only marks the first successful attempt... Read More ...
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 Revenue Service Posts Georgia Business Registry Online
Thea Shonia, a start-up businesswoman, is helping to save Georgians an estimated 126,000 trips a month to their local tax inspectorates to obtain business registry abstracts... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Institutional Reform
 Georgian Vegetable Growers Cultivate Profits
David Ebanoidze estimates his income has grown by about 60 percent since he first met with the USAID-supported AgVANTAGE project. With assistance from AgVANTAGE, his farm near the town of Marneuli has undergone radical changes... Read More ...
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 Permit Reforms Give Entrepreneur, Community Reason to Cheer
A modern children’s playground is replacing the ugly garages and old, dirty trash containers that used to fill a large yard across from the Zugdidi Railway Station in Georgia... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Institutional Reform
 Internship Leads to Better Service in Georgia’s Banking Sector
Clients of TBC Bank in Georgia now have better access to information thanks to Nino Gachechiladze’s participation in the USAID’s Community Connections (CC) Business program... Read More ...
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 Georgia Finds Alternate Use for Abandoned Tea Land
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia inherited over 62,000 hectares of unused tea land, the majority of which remains abandoned and overgrown... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Georgia Focuses on Preventing Avian Influenza Outbreak
A year has passed since the first case of avian influenza was reported in Georgia. At that time, the country did not have a national plan of action, or the capacity to properly contain the virus and take prompt action to avert further spread... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Health
 Mini-Cheese Factory Becomes A Model Enterprise
Patara Khanchali is a small, mountainous village in the district of Ninotsminda, Samtskhe-Javakheti region, situated on the bank of Lake Khanchali. Cattle breeding and potato growing comprise the main agricultural activities undertaken by the community residents... Read More ...
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 Premium Green Tea to Debut in Georgia, Export Markets
Due to Georgia’s subtropical climate, local tea has a special taste and characteristics. During the Soviet period, tea was one of the major crops grown in the Imereti region and large quantities were exported to the Soviet Union... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 South Caucasus Water Issues Receive Growing Media Interest
Water does not recognize political boundaries, a fact for the South Caucasus region, where the countries are tightly linked geopolitically, historically, culturally, and economically... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Environment
 South Caucasus Leaders Commit to Regional Water Cooperation
The USAID South Caucasus Water Program recently organized a workshop dedicated to the monitoring and forecasting of water resources in the South Caucasus. Harmonizing monitoring procedures and facilitating data exchange... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Environment
 Georgia’s IT Experts Get ‘Networked’
Alumni of a USAID training exchange recently established the Information Technology Association of Georgia—the first of its kind—to support Georgia’s burgeoning Information Technology (IT) industry... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Institutional Reform
 Peace Building in an Apple Orchard
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Georgia has experienced two ethnic conflicts over territory. Both have been “frozen” for over a decade and remain unresolved. In the case of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, which was fought from 1991-1992... Read More ...
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 Promoting Private Sector Investment in Georgia Hydropower
Generation from renewable resources contributes to Georgia’s energy independence and security. Small hydro power plant (SHP) potential is estimated to range between 300 and 500 megawatts, on par with many of Georgia’s largest power assets... Read More ...
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 Menarchik Visits Caucasus For First Overseas Mission
In February, USAID Acting Assistant Administrator for Europe & Eurasia Doug Menarchik embarked on his first visit to the field, traveling to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan to meet with government representatives... Read More ...
Related Items: Azerbaijan, Georgia
 Saakashvili Says Greens Packaging Is Georgia’s Business Card
Fresh herbs are one of the major export crops grown in Western Georgia, and constitute the primary source of income for some 7,000 families. Prior to the Russian Embargo on Georgian agricultural products... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Business Development
 Villagers Warm to Customs Reforms
Businessman Bacho Dolidze is turning post-Rose Revolution policy reforms into results on the ground in Georgia. Since 2003, his company, the Consulting Group of Caucasus, has been laying new gas pipelines and repairing old ones... Read More ...
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 Getting Out the Vote in Georgia
The government of Georgia announced that local elections, originally expected for November, would be held on October 5. Two Eurasia Foundation grantees are quickly responding to assist in making the election as smoothly as possible... Read More ...
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 Youth Energizes Georgian Parliament
For the past ten months, eleven young Georgians and the Parliament of Georgia have become inseparable. These young people are interns in the Georgian Parliament... Read More ...
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 Young Lawyers, Gov’t Team Up to Aid Trafficking Victims
In April 2006, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili signed the new Law on Fight against Human Trafficking, which introduced new approaches on trafficking in persons... Read More ...
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 Georgia Opens for Business
When American investor Matt Bartelsian shared his plans to open a new juice factory overseas, a colleague urged him to contact the Georgian government’s new business information center... Read More ...
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 Communal Meters Bring Light to Rural Georgia
Georgia’s infamous electricity shortages have affected rural areas the worst. Routine power rationing and blackouts often lead to rural Georgians going weeks without electricity... Read More ...
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 Remetering Transforms Life, Attitudes in Georgian City
Rustavi is a desolate city about 30 kilometers east of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. When the Soviet Union collapsed, so too did Rustavi’s many factories, which once provided reliable employment for the city’s residents... Read More ...
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 Georgian Energy Project Wins Prestigious International Award
USAID’s work with the government of Georgia to transform the largest Georgian state-owned energy utility from a corrupt, inefficient operation into a trusted, well-functioning company... Read More ...
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 USAID Honors Atlanta, Tbilisi Partners with Outstanding Citizen Citation
On April 19, 2006, USAID honored H. Kenneth Walker, M.D. of Emory University with its Outstanding Citizen Achievement Citation at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta... Read More ...
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 Local Governance Training Program Started in the North Caucasus
On December 9, USAID-funded think tank, Institute for Urban Economics, completed the first of three USAID-funded training workshops for local government officials from the North Caucasus.... Read More ...
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Georgia’s Citizens Take the Lead in Planning Their Communities’ Future
Like other Georgian cities, Poti suffers from high unemployment and poor access to basic utilities, such as electricity and water. In 2003, USAID’s local governance program, implemented... Read More ...
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Youth Activities Inspire Bright Futures for Georgia’s Young Adults
In 2003, a young high school student living with his parents and sister in an economically depressed Georgian city about 50 kilometers outside of the capital... Read More ...
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USAID Helps Georgian State TV Create Security Net For Excessed Workers
In 2004, the Georgian State TV Company was forced to dramatically downsize their work force, laying off about half of their employees. In a country already suffering from high unemployment... Read More ...
Related Items: Georgia, Labor Markets
 USAID Delivers Flood Relief to Western Georgia
This spring was marred by severe rainfall in the high mountainous regions of western Georgia. The resulting floods and landslides damaged houses, roads, bridges... Read More ...
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 Tolerance for Tots: USAID Funds Regional TV Program for Kids in the Caucasus
On January 29, 2005, the USAID-funded Children’s Tolerance Education project (CTEP) began broadcasting an innovative new television program for children in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan... Read More ...
Related Items: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Social Programs
 Leasing Sows Seeds of Prosperity for Georgian Agriculture
It’s wild mushroom season in the mountains near Sachkere, Georgia and every day villagers of all ages fan out into the cool forests to collect succulent porcinis and chanterelles... Read More ...
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 USAID Helps To Establish Top Business School in Former Soviet Union
Georgia’s economic transition from a centrally planned economy to one that is market oriented has been a painful process. After an initial collapse the economy has been slow to rebuild... Read More ...
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 AGB Nielsen Media Research to Invest $600,000 into Georgia’s TV Ratings System
The major U.S. provider of television marketing and consumer information recently committed to invest $600,000 to upgrade the television ratings system in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia... Read More ...
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 Microfinance Brings Hope to Ethnically-Diverse Regions in Georgia
Brock Bierman, Chief of Staff for USAID’s Europe and Eurasia Bureau, and Jim Watson, Caucasus Team Leader within USAID’s Europe and Eurasia Bureau, joined residents of Akhaltsikhe, in the Republic of Georgia on May 20 in marking a day of new opportunity. On this day, a leading indigenous microfinance institution, the Constanta Foundation, opened the doors of its new branch office, offering shoemakers, hairdressers, bakers, traders, and other managers of local small businesses their first real chance to take out loans to improve their businesses and their livelihoods. Read More ...
 Land Title Reform - Akhalgori, Georgia
For Rusudan Pavliashvili, it was going to be a big day. She stood with scores of her neighbors in the shade of the tall poplar trees sheltering from the hot July sun. They waited quietly, almost reverently in front of the run-down municipal building for what promised to be a truly memorable event. Today, the land that Stalin and the Bolsheviks had taken away decades earlier, was about to be given back to her by the Government of Georgia. Read more ...
Other Resources
- Georgia Agricultural/Agribusiness Sector Assessment
- Rule of Law:
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