| On March 22 – 23, 2018 the fourth capacity building trainings for regional civil society organizations took place in Kutaisi, Imereti region. The training was led by one of the project implementers, the Association of Business Consulting Organizations (ABCO), whose representative, Konstantin Zhgenti, provided trainees with information about the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), including what DCFTA benefits are available for Georgia, what it offers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and how the latter can engage into the European single market. |
| The training in Kutaisi was attended by 31 representatives of civil society organizations, among which “Associations of Business and Technical Consultants – Imerconsulting”, “Business Incubator”, “Open Society – New Kutaisi” and many others. The purpose of the training was to increase civil society representatives’ knowledge about DCFTA and to involve them into the project by providing capacities to inform Georgian public about DCFTA/SME strategy implementation and to assist local small and medium entrepreneurs that they could use DCFTA provided opportunities and would prepare to export to the European market. |
| During the training, the majority of participants expressed that this training program differed from other similar types of trainings that they had attended previously. This training provided accurate, practical approaches for applying the acquired knowledge about the DCFTA and concrete future steps taken towards utilizing the opportunities offered by the DCFTA. In general, the participants stated that they were satisfied with all of the provided content, and that they were especially satisfied with the highly practical applicability of the received information. |
| The next phase of involving trained civil society organizations in the project activities will be announcing a call for sub-granting, which will allow regional organizations to apply for funds to implement activities related to implementing DCFTA/SME communication campaign and to consult regional small and medium entrepreneurs on DCFTA. |
| Additionally, to the training, an introductory session to the DCFTA Local Advisory Council (LAC) was also conducted. Starting from May, 2018, regular meetings of public officials, civil society and SME representatives is to take place in Imereti region. This introductory session was accompanied with 12 various public officials representing relevant government bodies at regional and municipality levels, as well as local business representatives. Participating organizations gave very positive feedback and were supportive of establishing such an institution. |
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