On April 16 2019, the working meeting of the parliament and US Congress staff was organized by the parliamentary training center, national democratic institute (NDI) and international republican institute of Georgia (IRI GEORGIA).
The meeting was attended by Laura Thornton - head of the Georgian National Democratic Institute (NDI), John Dipiro - International Republican Institute - director of the Program of IRI Georgia, Tata Khetaguri - head of the parliamentary budget office of Georgia, Shalanta Yang – secretary general of congress, representative from united states house committee on appropriations and Justin Wayne - deputy secretary general/director of Washington office.

Topics discussed during the training included the history of visual communication as well as human and computer communication, as well as modern methods of data visualization and the possibilities of their implementation. Also, budget office staff received information about practical examples of these methods and got acquainted with existing experience. The expert invited within the project has developed a revised policy of visualization of budget office products that will be gradually implemented.

Tatia Khetaguri, head of the budget office of parliament of Georgia, Shorena Kakhidze, Vakhtang Chalapeikrishvili and Natia Tsikvadze representatives of the budget office met with representatives of the Canadian Parliamentary Center. Guests talked about the role of the budget office of the legislative body of Canadian Parliament. On the other hand, the Georgian side presented information about the role of the budget office of parliament of Georgia, its activities and future plans. The focus was also on the challenges that budgetary office strategy and action plan considers.

"The meeting with Canadian guests was very interesting in terms of sharing experience. Provided information will help us to shape our future plans correctly, "said Tatia Khetaguri, head of the budget office of Parliament of Georgia after the meeting.

From October 9 to November 17, 2018, Nestan Gaprindashvili, employee of the Budget Office of the Parliament was invited to participate in the American Councils Professional Practice Program (PFP). The aim of the program was to learn about the activities of the US legislative process and state institutions, as well as identifying challenges and seeking practical solutions on the basis of sharing experience with young professionals. In the framework of the program, Nestan, on the one hand, undertook intensive training courses in Washington, including the course of Professor Sam Potoliko from Georgetown University, on the other hand, had practical experience directly in the capital of California, Sacramento. At the end of the program attended the Professional Practice of Congress in Washington. The budget office representative has been given the opportunity to get practical experience in the City Auditor Office of Sacramento, which involved engagement in various projects, including the audit of gender and ethnic diversity of the city. Within the framework of the project, meetings were also held with the representatives of the Legislative Analyst's Office of California State and individual committees, involved sharing the legislative process experience between the parliament budgetary office and relevant agencies. Acquired knowledge and practical experience is important for strengthening private professional as well as institutional capacities.

On October 1-3 of this year, Natia Tsikvadze, Coordinator of the Budget Analytics Department of the Budget Office of the Parliament of Georgia participated in working visit for the purpose of sharing international experience in the direction of gender budgeting in Austria (Vienna). The visit was implemented within the frames of the EU project "gender equality, violence against women and domestic violence issues" and it was attended by representatives of the government administration and certain ministries. Within the framework of the visit meetings were held with the representatives of the Vienna city hall, the ministry of finance of Austria and the ministry of state services and sports, as well as representatives of the budget office. Discussed issues included the issues concerning gender aspects in the state budget, such as gender budgeting in the context of outcome oriented budget and the Austrian experience in this direction at central and local level, as well as the role of the above institutions and civil society in gender budgeting process.
We remind you that the budget office of the Parliament of Georgia in April of this year, taking into consideration the obligation defined by the relevant action plan, presented the state budget analysis in the gender aspect to gender equality council of Parliament of Georgia. The research was prepared with the support of USAID's Democratic Development Initiative (GGI) and aimed at:
• Unified framework for gender equality assessment of state budget programs in gender importance form.
• Analysis of the assessment indicators for the goals and results for high gender importance programs indicating recommendation indicators that can be used by the spending institutions to evaluate the results achieved in the gender aspect of the specific program.
You can see the publication in detail on the link: the state budget in the gender context

Tatia Khetaguri, head of the budget office of the parliament of Georgia and representatives of the budget office met with the representatives of budget office of the national assembly of the Republic of Korea.
Within the framework of the visit, the budget office of the Parliament of Georgia visited Kim Chun Schene, head of the budget office of the national assembly of the republic of Korea and representatives of the Budget analysis and economic analysis coordination departments. The meeting was attended by Vakhtang Chalapeikrishvili, head of macroeconomic analysis and tax policy department, Nestan Gaprindashvili and Natia Suarishvili, representatives of the cost estimates and legislative support unit. Discussions focused on the issues related to the activity of the parliamentary budgetary offices, including the practice of fiscal and macroeconomic policy analysis and budgetary impact assessment of legislative initiatives. Guests were interested in preparation of macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts with experience of the budget office of the parliament of Georgia. Meeting also focused on the mechanisms that will help both institutions in communication with internal and external stakeholders.

On May 28 and 4 of the current year, head of the Parliament budget office, Tata Khetaguri and representative of the cost estimates and legislative support unit, Nestan Gaprindashvili participated in the discussion of the regulatory impact of the EU Technical Assistance Project "legislative impact assessment, lawmaking process and strengthening representative skills ", hosted by the International School of Economics.
The series of discussions, organized by the European Union project, was launched on May 21 of this year and aims regulation impact assessment methodological aspect review in Georgia. The meeting of May 28, in which Nestan Gaprindashvili participated, was devoted to the importance of determining the goals of the regulation impact assessment and practices in Georgia. The purpose of the discussion on June 4 was to review the assessment methods and analytical instruments, including the cost-benefit analysis, and the basic aspects. At the meetings, discussions focused on the theoretical aspects of the above-mentioned directions, as well as practical current and potential challenges that are important for effective use of regulation impact assessment.

In the "Fiscal Transparency handbook" prepared by the International Monetary Fund in the current year parliamentary budget office activities are presented as good practices in the relevant component. The fiscal transparency handbook, prepared by the International Monetary Fund, aims to define the principles and practices defined by the IMF's Fiscal Transparency Code in 2014 and provide detailed instructions for implementation of these principles. Namely:
-Handbook specifies each component of the Fiscal Transparency Code and the dimensions and principles of the component.
- Handbook outlines the importance of each principle and the latest trends in its practice, indicating relevant international standards.
- Handbook describes the basic, good and best practices of each principle, indicating the benefits and challenges associated with achieving good/best practices. Examples of individual countries are also presented.
- Handbook determines indicators to assess compliance with the principles.

On 17-18 May, secretary general of the parliament hosted European center for parliamentary research and documentation (ECPRD) with the participation of the budget office and research department of the parliament of Georgia, a seminar on:” Evaluation of the influence of legislative initiatives on state finances and regulatory impacts assessment”. The seminar aimed to share the experience of assessing the influence of regulation, as well as the evaluation of the impact of legislative initiatives on state finances. The seminar included three sessions: 1. Institutional arrangement of regulation impact assessment system; 2. Methodological aspects of regulation impact assessment and analytical instruments; 3. Evaluation of influence on public finance for initiatives. Representatives of 22 countries participated in the event, representing research and analytical departments and budget offices of parliaments of member states of the European center for parliamentary research and documentation.

Secretary general of the parliament, Givi Mikanadze and head of the parliamentary budget office, Tata Khetaguri on the topic: seminar of the European center for parliamentary research and documentation: "Evaluation of the influence of legislative initiatives on state finances and regulatory impacts assessment".