After almost a year of foundation work, IOHK has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Georgia and the two largest universities of the State of Georgia to establish a partnership. The memorandums of understanding we have signed with the Ministry of Education, the Free University of Tbilisi and the University of Business and Technology of Tbilisi mark the commitment of the Government of Georgia to cooperate with IOHK and use Cardano to drive innovation in the country.
Following the signing of the MoU, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Mikheil Batiashvili spoke about the rapid development of Georgia and his hope that "leveraging IOHK's world-leading expertise, particularly the third generation of blockchain technology, will help us further our goal of becoming the world's leading secure, digital international business".
(Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze and Charles Hoskinson)
One of the core goals of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed this week is to use Cardano-powered blockchain technology to store, track and validate educational certificates such as degree certificates, eliminating the need for time-consuming and expensive manual verification. The system will be implemented first in Georgia, with the further objective of using distributed ledger technology to support the Europe-wide Bologna Process, an intergovernmental effort to improve the internationalization of higher education. IOHK has already studied similar applications of this technology in Greece, where we have also partnered with government education authorities to explore a pilot project to verify students' academic qualifications on the blockchain.
It's not just the education sector that could benefit from the partnership with IOHK. Charles also met with the Minister of Agriculture and the Prime Minister of Georgia to discuss other applications of blockchain technology in the country, such as supporting new fintech businesses, supply chain implementation, and incorporating smart contract functionality into government processes.
"We are very pleased to be working with the Government of Georgia on a range of projects in business, education and government services," Charles said. "IOHK is delighted to be part of the country's development path and looks forward to developing the blockchain ecosystem in Georgia and helping its people solve the challenges they face."
IOHK has previously worked with Georgian institutions. Researcher Peter Gaži has lectured at IOG's proof-of-stake protocol Ouroboros at the Free University of Tbilisi. In January, a Cardano gathering was held here, sponsored by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of the Georgian State and the Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency, where Edsko de Vries, a Haskell consultant working in Castano at the time, delivered a speech that was well received.
This week's memorandum of understanding strengthens IOHK's relationship with Georgia. The next steps will be to organize workshops, meetups, and forums to determine whether the most pressing challenges can be solved using Cardano, Atala, or a combination of both. IOHK and the Government of Georgia will work together to embed blockchain technology into systems across the country, proving the value of digitalization and forward-thinking.