Innovative ‘Fab Labs’ to aid Georgian start-ups, entrepreneurs
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Fourteen industrial innovation laboratories-Fab Labs-opened in Tbilisi and ten other cities today.
Fab Labs, modern, small-scale laboratories offering the services of 3D printers, computers and other materials, are state-funded centers of innovation hosted in many of Georgia’s vocational colleges and other centers of innovation.
The labs are meant to aid young innovators to turn their ideas into reality, thereby boosting economic development, start-ups and job-creation.
Georgia’s Minister of Education and Science Aleksandre Jejelava and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Giorgi Gakharia attended the official opening ceremony at Community College Mermisi.
Promising that every vocational college will have its own Fab Lab in the future, Minister Jejelava believes this lab is a step-forward for new opportunities in Georgia.
Georgia is now in 10th place in terms of countries and the number of operating Fab Labs. Photo by: Ministry of Education
The Minister of Economy said new labs will help fill in the gap between demand and supply in Georgia’s labour market.
Minister Gakharia believes Fab Labs will give youth the opportunity to convert their ideas into reality in such a way so as to receive commercial benefit.
Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency started project Fab Lab back in 2014, opening its very first lab at Ilia State University in Tbilisi. Other labs were later opened all around the country.
Counting the 14 that opened today, there are now 22 Fab Labs throughout the country. Georgia is now in 10th place in terms of countries and the number of operating Fab Labs.
Education is among the top priorities of the four-point strategic agenda of the Government of Georgia.
"Georgia's chosen approach [is] to build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels, and for Georgia we are pleased to say it is working," said Georgia's Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili at the United Nations.
Innovators, creative thinkers and entrepreneurs have been given a major helping hand to turn their ideas into reality with the opening of a new modern laboratory today.
Georgia is creating an opportunity for creative thinkers to utilise their entrepreneurial talents and innovative potential by building the country’s first High Technology and Innovation Development Centre.
The Innovation and Technology Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development is starting three new grant projects to support talented people and commercialise innovations and technology.
Two Georgian technology startups finished among the top 10 projects from thousands of international initiatives at one of the largest mobile innovations event in Spain last week.
Georgian Economy Minister Giorgi Gakharia participated in the international transport conference in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. In his speech Gakharia spoke about Georgia’s role as the "gate” between east and west, south and north.
The traditional souvenirs, clothes, bakery, dried fruit, wine, tea and other Georgian-made products have been exhibited at the old part of Tbilisi today, which is hosting a weekend fair aimed at promoting Georgian entrepreneurs and their local production.
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13.3% of enterprises in Georgia introduced new or significantly improved goods on the market, while the share of enterprises that introduced new or significantly improved service in 2017 was 14%.
A brand-new initiative in Georgia’s capital is launching a business incubator at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts to help the state institution’s students develop their projects and learn skills for promoting their work.