In keeping with their mission to facilitate dialogue not only among businesses in the gaming industry, but to include government and regulatory bodies, Casino Forum Batumi, to be held August 18 at the Leogrand Hotel, in Georgia’s Black Sea city, has announced that a key conference speaker will be Besik Bolkvadze, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy of Ajara A.R.

The Batumi Forum is presented by Smile-Expo and is supported by the Finance Ministry of the autonomous region of the former Soviet state.

According to information released to the press today, Deputy Minister Bolkvadze will inform delegates and participants of the forum, among other issues, about the overall economic situation in Ajara. The Georgian National Tourism Administration recently published data showing substantial growth in the tourism industry, which includes casino tourism. The worldwide index for tourism growth is 3.4 percent, while Georgia has seen a consistent rate of 14 percent growth since 2014. Tourism’s impact on the country’s total GDP was nearly 6.8 percent in 2015.

The keynote speaker will also address how gambling has improved the economic situation in the Batumi region, and offer insight as to why legal gambling is proving to be a profitable business in Georgia.

Mr. Bolkvadze will speak at a specialized conference, dedicated to gambling development in  Ajara. Among attendees and delegates at the forum will be gaming industry representatives, managers and other business people, casino owners and investors.

While many industry events give access to networking opportunities, and some feature government representatives, Batumi Casino Forum promises unprecedented access for investors and other potential stakeholders to get the inside track on how industry activity is classified in Georgia as well as the pathways to set up easily.

The Deputy Minister will be available for personal conversations at the business dinner in Hilton Batumi following the conference.