The Bloomberg International Training and Research Lab was opened at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) on September 19. Acting Rector of TSU, Professor Darejan Tvaltvadze, Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Aleksandre Jejelava, Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri, Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania, representatives of academic and business circles attended the opening ceremony.
Acting Rector of TSU, Darejan Tvaltvadze said: “Opening of the Bloomberg Lab will help students gain practical skills through using innovative methods of teaching. This lab is designed for the students and researchers from the Faculty of Economics and Business, who are involved in researching financial markets, foreign exchange activities. This is a new step towards modern education, because theory and practice are merged into each other here.”
“Every leading organization involved in international trade on financial markets needs updated information to carry out operations as accurately as possible. Students will be able to gain all relevant skills in the process of learning. It is a great honor for any university to have such a great partner, as Bloomberg,” Education Minister Aleksandre Jejelava said.
TSU Mayor Davit Narmania said: “An important laboratory has been opened at the university. With the help of this laboratory students will be able to pass a practical course. The Bloomberg system is approbated throughout the world that actually is a future for financiers. They will gain all practical skills at the university that will help them in their future activities.”
“This is the first such laboratory in the region. Even in my university, which is one of the largest universities in Great Britain, there is no such laboratory,” Alex Wenham, Head of Sales for Central Eastern Europe & Central Asia at Bloomberg, said and added that the university will acquire a comprehensive system in terms of collecting information, conducting research and implementing new courses.
Bloomberg created a special project for higher education institutions - Bloomberg Education - which involves creating “a dealing room” on the bases of 12 terminals. This will enable the university to teach students the real-time stock exchange operations and facilitate their implementation.
Bloomberg education support units will help the university professors and teachers (economists, lawyers, mathematicians and journalists) to engage themselves more in the international market research, international market management, to research modern market trends, characteristics and get full information about the current economic situation in the world, in conjunction with sharing it with their counterparts. Additionally, Bloomberg International Research Center will organize conferences, develop and attract grants and help specialists to enhance their skills in investments and banking. Bloomberg’s platform will enable TSU to have direct access to its database, which will give the students an opportunity to obtain a comprehensive theoretical and practical knowledge, and at the same time to carry out similar operations in real-time mode.
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University has a potential to become the center for teaching international financial, foreign exchange and commodity markets in the country and throughout the South Caucasus. Two companies - Bloomberg and Reuters provide electronic support of activities on financial, foreign exchange and commodity exchanges. Only these companies have the exclusive right to dealing and therefore, the world of finances relies on these two companies when carrying out exchange operations.
