The 10-member delegation represented the following Georgian entities: (1) Georgian Gas International Corporation (2) State Agency for Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources of Georgia (3) Georgian International Oil Corporation (4) Georgian National
Energy Regulatory Commission (5) Ministry of Fuel and Energy (6) United Energy Distribution Company of Georgia.

On the evaluation session of the program all the participants confirmed that the program fully met their expectations both in terms of its design and content. The evaluation form prepared by ERRA and distributed among the Georgian representatives was tailored to measure the satisfaction of the participants with the (1) professional content of the program (2) quality and usefulness of the presentations (3) the speakers (4) the individual host organizations.

All participants agreed that the introduction of the Hungarian practises of privatization was extremely useful and productive. Since Georgia is still ahead of the privatization of some of its energy companies, the information gained from the Hungarian ministry officials and energy regulators could be useful for the Georgian government officials and decision makers as well. Some of the presentations delivered by the specialists of the Hungarian Energy Office were tailored to highlight some mistakes made by the regulators and to list the potential pitfalls of the privatization process. The participants agreed that the conditions of the privatization in Hungary were well prepared by the thorough regulatory background.

The managers were happy about the opportunity to visit four Hungarian utilitiy companies that are branches or subsidiaries of major international energy firms. They agreed that management standards and capacities of these companies are extremely high, the organization of the work is excellent. This is another area in Georgia that needs further improvement.

Most of the presentations delivered stressed the issue of liberalization since as of January 1st 2003 the price of the electrivity in Hungary will be liberalized for a certain range of consumers. Most of the organizations visited talked about the preparations made and the potential implications of the liberalization process. They appreciated that the program allowed them to visit the issue of liberalization both from the aspect of regulators and from the regulated entities. Everyone agreed that it would be extremely useful to learn about the actual results and implications of the liberalization after a 6-8 month period.

Some representatives stressed the need for more tailored-made visits in order to visit the issue of oil and gas production, processing, transportation and distribution more closely. Thus, they suggested designing more sector specific study tours in the future.