The official visit of Mr. Brahima Sanou, BDT Director, to Tbilisi, Georgia was organized at the invitation of H.E. Mr. Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia. The main objective of the mission was to participate in Tbilisi Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, which was organized by Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and held under the patronage of Prime Minister of Georgia, H.E. Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi from 28 to 29 November 2017.
Mr. Sanou participated as a speaker in the Tbilisi Belt and Road Forum Panel Discussion on Digital Connectivity.
The panel discussion was also attended by Mr. Giorgi Cherkezishvili, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia; Mr. Lawrence Meredith, Director for Neighbourhood East, DG NEAR, European Commission; Mr. Deng Xiao Feng, CEO, China Telecom Global Limited; Mr. Vahan Martirosyan, Minister of Transport, Communication and IT of the Republic of Armenia; Mr. Istvan Lepsenyi, State Secretary for Economic Development and Regulations
Within the framework of the visit, Mr. Sanou conducted a meeting with Mr. Giorgy Cherkezishvili, Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia to discuss the issues of cooperation between Georgia and ITU. The Georgian site showed interest in the development of ICT infrastructure in mountain areas, remote villages, tourist places, as well as in the installation of fiber optics, submarine cables, as well as in the implementation of local competence centres of Centres of Excellence. Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia will host the 2018 European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG), which will be held in Tbilisi from 5 to 6 June 2018 (plus day zero).
Also, Mr. Sanou conducted a joint meeting with Mr. Vakhtang Abashidze, Commissioner, Georgian National Communication Commission; Otar Zumburidze, Head of International Affairs, Georgian Technical University; Meeting with Ms. Tea Tkeshelashvili, Head of Development, Silknet. The meeting discussed inter alia continuation of the ITU/GNCC Big Data Project implementation launched in 2016, aimed at establishing new methodology of collecting and processing information on quantity of subscribers, revenues and development of services in the digital communications and broadcasting field.
