Subject: RDFG news - Within the Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Program, 5 winner projects were awarded grants
From: Nina Kopaleishvili <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 09:01:43 +0000

Within the Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Program, 5 winner projects were awarded grants

On September 7, 2019, within the closing ceremony of the I phase of the Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Program held in Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA), the grant selection committee evaluated presented 14
entrepreneurial business ideas and selected 5 winner projects who were awarded grants: 10 000 GEL, 6 000 GEL, 6 462 GEL, 3 000 GEL, and 3 600 GEL. Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Program is being implemented by the Association Rural Development for Future
Georgia (RDFG) under the scope of the USAID Zrda Activity in Georgia
and aims to strengthen rural youth through entrepreneurship.

The Program winners:

Esma Tsikhelashvili – Aspindza

Nazi Antidze – Adigeni

Salome Kardava – Zugdidi

Giorgi Khurishvili – Gori

Giorgi Niparishvili - Kaspi

Within the program, entrepreneurship training sessions have been conducted for 114 project participants in 9 target municipalities after which the authors of the best 18 business ideas were selected and invited to the Boot Camp to work on turning
their ideas into business projects. At the end of the second stage of the project, they were entrusted to prepare the so-called pitch in order to present their business projects to the grant selection committee.

During the pitching day, the project participants had only 5 minutes to pitch their ideas. All in all, 14 project ideas were presented to the grant selection committee. In the end, the
committee had time for evaluation based on the beforehand developed criteria after which they had to select
5 winner projects. The grant selection committee was represented by the following members: Nika Kurdiani -Vice President of TBC Bank, Teo Babunashvili – Enterprise Development Department Program Manager,
Teimuraz Mamatsashvili – Head of the GITA Startup projects, Katy Chumburidze – Deputy Chief of Party, USAID Zrda Activity in Georgia, and Archil Bakuradze – the Founder of Crystal.

Regional Youth Entrepreneurship Program is being implemented in 9 target municipalities: Zugdidi, Borjomi, Aspindza, Adigeni, Ninotsminda, Marneuli, Bolnisi, Kaspi, and Gori. The program
participants are
required to present their business ideas related to agriculture, tourism, innovations/technologies or creative industries. The second phase of the project will start in the fall of 2019.

The project is being implemented by RDFG, within the USAID Zrda Activity in Georgia and is supported by Enterprise Georgia, Creative Georgia, Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency, National Tourism Administration, Agricultural and Rural
Development Agency, Crystal, National Bank of Georgia and TBC Bank.

Nina Kopaleishvili

Communications Officer

Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG)

4, Gabriel Isakadze Street

0160, Tbilisi, Georgia

Tel/Fax: +995 32 224 05 01

Mob: +995 598 94 00 04

Web: www.rdfg.ge

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