|
||||
|
||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs
HIGHLIGHT On March 24-26, 2006, forty-one alumni of the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program (Muskie) gathered in Guardari, Georgia at a regional conference entitled “Building Democratic Societies and Market Economies in Eurasia”. Supported by the U.S Embassy in Tbilisi and funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, the conference brought together alumni from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. During the conference panels, the alumni of each country represented
delivered presentations on political, economic or social issues
that are essential to the functioning of a democratic society.
On the first day of the conference, alumni Tamar Beruchashvili
(Muskie 1996), the current Deputy State Minister of Georgia, and
Gia Kavtaradze (Muskie 1993), the current Minister of Justice
of Georgia, opened the discussion on governmental, legal and security
issues. The discussion ranged from specific issues concerning
Georgia and Armenia to broader subjects affecting all countries,
such as the relationships between government and civil society
organizations. The second panel focused on educational and social
issues and provided a forum for the alumni to discuss a variety
of challenges facing education systems in their home countries.
After the formal part of the first day of the conference, the
alumni had an opportunity to come together for an inter-cultural
evening sharing traditional food and music from their countries.
The most popular panel of the conference took place on the second
date and was dedicated to business and economic development. This
two-part panel covered topics ranging from operating businesses
to tax policy as well as touched on issues specific to several
of the alumni’s home countries, such as facilitating trade finance
in Armenia and managing oil wealth in Kazakhstan. As a result of the conference, Muskie alumni enriched their professional networks by meeting alumni from different countries and by engaging in mutually interesting topics. The cross-cultural experience provided the participants with an opportunity to lay the groundwork for regional cooperation in working towards democracy. The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi received the following comments from the conference participants: “I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the organization of this interesting and useful conference in Gudauri as well as for giving me an opportunity to attend it. I was happy to present the results of our research. All the other presentations really broadened the outlook for economic development in Eurasia. The participants' questions forced us to think about economic development in Ukraine as well as the other countries. We also admired a great example of success of Muskie program in Georgia.” - Valentin Zelenyuk (Muskie 1997) Ukraine “We would like to thank U.S. Department of State for supporting Muskie alumni initiatives and through this conference giving us a chance to share our experience with fellow alumni from other countries.” – Muskie alumni from Kyrgyz Republic “We do believe that the program has brought together active citizens
of their countries that can become even stronger change agents
if organized and motivated. This conference reassured us in our
attempts to keep connected, mobilized and active in organizing
further international Muskie events.” – Natalia Korobova (Muskie
2002) and Muskie alumni from Russia
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||
|
