Business-Economic Forum to Promote Closer Collaboration between Government & Business Sector

On December 18, 2018, BMC and Area Group will host the Business-Economic Forum ‘Business-Government Contact’ at the Grand Conference Hall of The Biltmore hotel in Tbilisi. Within the framework of the forum, the State and private sector, together with international organizations, diplomatic corps, chambers of Commerce and more than 150 foreign delegates invited from 15 countries, will discuss the State and business-investment projects and establish future partnerships.

The forum aims to demonstrate Georgia's economic and business potential and current and planned state or private projects in the international market, which will emphasize the country’s positive and stable business-economic and investment environment. Within the scope of the Business-Economic Forum, future partnerships with investors will be established and interesting projects will be created.

The forum is held annually and comprehensively summarizes and promotes the relations established between the government and business sector, and stresses the most successful business and state platforms and agencies of the year. For the last five years, the forum has been held in a different format.

GEORGIA TODAY met the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Area Group, Nino Jinjolava, and the Founder and Director of ‘Business and Media Contact,’ Inga Maakharadze, who elaborated on the main purposes and the importance of the forum and discussed its contribution to the close collaboration of the Georgian government and the business sector.

“The one-day forum aims to promote the collaboration between the Government of Georgia and the business sector. ‘Successful business for a successful government, a successful government for successful business’ is the main motto of the forum. The embassies and international chambers of Commerce are actively involved in the process, as they pass the invitations to foreign investors for the Forum. Not only the development sector but all the business directions, including agriculture, will be presented at the International Business-Economic Forum. LEPL Enterprise Georgia and JSC Partnership Fund, as government projects aimed at promoting business development, will be also widely presented there,” Jinjolava explained.

Various international speakers and foreign investors are invited to the forum. B2B meetings will be held between the representatives of the private business sector and interested investors, while presentations and panel discussions will be held about the existing challenges in different fields of business and important issues of the reforms and the investment environment.

Jinjolava says the development company’s participation in the forum was conditioned by the main purpose to promote strengthening the development sector and popularizing their products.

“Area Group’s participation in the above-mentioned project includes enhancing the development sector directly within the framework of the forum. Our company organizes the involvement of the development companies in the forum. We arrange an exhibition space for them, set up the business panels and arrange their meeting with interested investors. Various panels and discussions will be held within the scope of the forum which will give foreign investors an opportunity to directly speak with the representatives of successful development companies, discover the current situation and tendencies in the Georgian market, draw the relevant conclusions and to establish fruitful business partnerships,” she added.

In the final part of the event, the Gala Awards Ceremony will be held, where all the participants of the forum will be awarded with certificates and an exclusive award as an honorable participant who contributed to the development of Georgia’s economy and business. The Awards Ceremony and the live videos of the participants will be broadcast on the leading TV channels of Georgia.

According to Inga Makharadze, all the successful State projects implemented by various ministries that contributed to the business promotion in Georgia will be presented at the forum.

“This is an annual International Business-Economic Forum, the follow-up of which will be the Awards Ceremony. All the important reforms and draft laws that significantly contributed to the business development in the country will be awarded and all the successful state agencies will be presented by their own stands at the Forum. The high officials of the agencies will also attend. With the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, which claimed an Honorary Award at last year’s forum, the diplomatic corps and chambers of Commerce of various countries are invited to the Forum. As for the Area Group’s participation, it will be holding an exhibition this year, the main purpose of which is to enhance the development sector.

“We think that our collaboration with Area Group will be very fruitful, as Area Group already has experience related to exhibitions and sales. Their experience will make our Business-Economic Forum more attractive and interesting for foreign investors. We think that this platform is yet another opportunity for the development sector to popularize their products, find new partner companies and collaborate with them,” she elaborated.

Business and Media Contact is the organizer of the Business-Economic Forum. As Makharadze noted, special TV shows and profile videos will be created about all the participant companies of the forum. Imedi TV is the main supporter of the event, and live videos of the participants of the forum will be broadcast on this channel.

Business and Media Contact started releasing international media products, aimed at supporting and popularizing the Georgian business environment and products in the international market. Special TV shows in this regard are being broadcast on Imedi TV Channel.

“The first international project, Prime Show from Israel covered the business news and the relations between Georgia and Israel in this direction. While preparing this project, we popularized the Georgian business platform in Israel and the most important investment projects implemented between Georgia and Israel. This cycle of TV shows significantly contributes to attracting foreign investments and promoting our business platform in the international market. At this stage, promoting Georgian-Chinese international relations is also planned, which means active collaboration with international media. Our project gives us an opportunity to meet many foreign investors, and we help them to establish new partnerships with the Georgian businessmen, itself essential for the country’s economy. We do our best to promote Georgian business and raise awareness about it throughout the world,” Makharadze told us.

The forum will be widely broadcast by the leading international and local media, such as business-analytic TV shows of Imedi Media Holding and TV Companies Imedi and Maestro, First Channel of the Public Broadcaster, TV 1, Rustavi 2, Kavkasia TV, Palitra TV, Ajara TV, Obieqtv, Starvision and the representatives of international TV companies, who will cover the forum outside Georgia. International Television and Broadcasting Company MIR, which operates in post-soviet countries (Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, etc), will also cover the forum.

The honorary participants and nominees of the project include: Tbilisi City Hall, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Ministry of Finance of Georgia, Business Chamber of Georgia, American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, Georgian Business Association, German Economic Union in Georgia, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the People's Republic of China, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the diplomatic corps of various countries.

By Ana Dumbadze