RURAL DEVELOPMENT – CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND POLICY

The paper provides discussion about the administration arrangement of Georgia and assesses the possibilities of development of the regions in terms of existing approaches. The approaches to the economic development of the regions in Georgia don’t respond to the challenges faced by the country and fail to ensure the competitiveness of the regions. The study reveals the problem of regional inequity based on the different indicators, that show Georgia is strongly monocentric country with territorial, social and economic disparities. The research identifies common potentials of development for the most regions and emphasizes importance of determination the priorities of particular regions. The research focuses on the study of economic development models of regions in EU member countries. Considering international experience and on-going projects funded by EU to support regional development policy in Georgia, influence of EU cohesion policy will become more noticeable. That means there is a high chance that Georgian policy makers will focus on equity objective without relevant analysis and evaluation cost-benefit sides of both policy approaches. The paper presents recommendations that will facilitate the improvement of regional development strategy in Georgia and minimize problems which Georgia faces on the way of implementation of EU requirements / recommendations