Lectures and Trainings

   

Closing Ceremony of the Project “Integration of the Ethnic Greek Minority into the Georgian State”

On April 24, 2008 the project "Integration of the Ethnic Greek Community into the Georgian State," was officially closed with an evening reception at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. The year-long training program, funded jointly by the Embassies of Greece and Switzerland in Tbilisi and under the direction of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, featured the participation of 12 young leaders from Georgia's ethnic Greek minority community, who took part in a specially designed program to facilitate their further integration into the Georgian state. Selected through a rigorous adjudication process and representing all regions of Georgia in addition to Tbilisi, the students went through internships within the Parliament, the Ministries of Defense, Interior, Environment, Health, Education, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Economic Development and Culture and various other governmental agencies as a part of their training. In parallel, they received instruction in the Georgian language and attended lectures on issues of international affairs, globalization, economics and public administration at the Foundation.

It should be mentioned to the success of the project, that several of the program graduates have already become the part of the Georgian Public Service and serve their country with dignity and honor at the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Ministries for Reintegration and the Diaspora Issues.

Special guests for the evening included H.E. Mr Lorenzo Amberg, Ambassador of Switzerland and Dr. Alexander Catranis, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Greece. Also, representatives of the Georgian government, State Minister for the Reintegration, Mr. Temuri Yakobashvili, and State Minster for the Diaspora Issues, Dr. Iulon Gagoshidze.