MINISTRY OF ECONOMY
AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
OF GEORGIA

Today, foreign specialists conducted the first workshop on elaborating the National Seismic Maps at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development.

Representatives of the relevant services of the Ministry, the Ilia State University Institute of Earth Sciences and other invited Georgian specialists attended the meeting. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory specialists familiarized Georgian specialists with the international best practice of elaborating the seismic maps.

Nino Gventsadze, the Head of the Spatial Planning and Construction Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, states that the Department is actively working on the preparing of Eurocodes in order to harmonize the construction regulations.

“We have the obligation to translate the Eurocodes within the 5 years’ time. All 10 Eurocodes will be integrated and adapted in Georgia, taking into account the specific needs of our country. We should also prepare National Annexes to the Eurocodes, which, in the future, will be a guideline to all the construction project suppliers. The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development is in charge of this process since the Ministry is the national body for the implementation of the construction policy in the country. We need to get familiar with the international best practice in order to elaborate the best National Annexes. The workshop held today is targeted at this aim. Evrocode 8 covers the seismic issues and it is of outmost importance to our country in this regard. In order to elaborate the National Annex to this code, we will set out a technical committee, which will involve foreign experts as well as local specialists. The World Bank and the Ilia State University support this process. Today, the Canadian specialists held the workshop upon the invitation of Tea Godoladze, the representative of the Ilia State University” - Nino Gventsadze stated.