Communities, cities and governments around the world increasingly acknowledge the importance of a systemic approach to Local Economic Development (LED) for building economic resilience and improving people’s living conditions in their localities.

The 1st National Conference “Strengthening the Local Economic Development System in Georgia” brought together national policy makers, mayors, representatives of local self-governments, international organizations, academic circles, as well as civil society to share collaborative experience of national and local actors, to discuss jointly piloted LED initiatives in Poti, Senaki and Zugdidi and to identify ways forward for strengthening local-national LED system synergies.

The conference was sponsored by the Swiss Government and organized by the National Association of Local Self-Governments of Georgia (NALAG) and consultancy firm Mezopartner in cooperation with the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI) and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development (MESD).