Tbilisi Silk Road Forum Opinion Poll Confirms that Georgia is Regional Business Hub
Tbilisi Silk Road Forum 2019 organizers offered the participants of the Forum to take part in the interactive opinion poll.
At the beginning of each panel discussion, there was a question on monitors and the delegates had the opportunity to state their answers until the end of the discussion. Results were announced at the end of the discussion.
Delegates of the Opening Panel were offered to provide their opinion weather the harmonization of state policies is necessary to foster interconnection between the Silk Road Initiative countries. 94% of the delegates gave the positive answer and 6% of the guest - negative.
At the Parallel Panel Discussion: Transport Connectivity – Transformation along the Silk Road and beyond, the participants were asked to answer the following question - From your perspective, what constitutes a major challenge for regional connectivity? They were asked to choose from the following answers: a) Varying regulatory frameworks, policies and approaches or b) Physical infrastructure gaps. The majority of the participants of the discussion (54%) supported the first answer, while the others (46%) supported the answer
In a panel discussion on trade (Trade2Win), the delegates answered questions on whether the country’s competitiveness increases through more trade agreements. This question was supported by 89% and 11% percent opposed.
The poll question of the discussion panel - The Future of Energy - Emerging trends, Security and Sustainability of the Silk Road Energy Belt and beyond, the participants had to name the factors affecting the energy sector and 77% of the delegates named the political circumstances, 15% - economic factors and 8% - technical obstacles.
Another panel of the Tbilisi Silk Road was devoted to the discussion - Innovation driven growth - Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Silk Road. The poll question was to identify is there is a need for harmonized global regulations/standards in the era of Artificial Intelligence. The answers were as follows: 1) existing regulatory frameworks is sufficient (81%); 2) each country/region should have its own regulations and standards (11%); 3) A completely new approach is needed (8%).
The second day of the Silk Road in Tbilisi focused on the development of cooperation between Georgia and the Silk Road countries in terms of Georgia’s investment opportunities.
During the panel discussions, there was a poll survey as well. The organizers offered the delegates questions with several tentative answers. Specifically, when asked what the benefits of Georgia’s investment potential are, 44% of the delegates responded that Georgia is a regional business hub. According to 32% of participants, such an advantage is the existence of the Free Trade Regimes and 18% focused on the low taxes, while 6% preferred the competitive price workforce.
When asked if what goals can be achieved by investing in Georgia, 45% of delegates responded that this would diversify the market, the same number (45%) focused on cost-effectiveness, while 10% of the respondents said they would have receive the access to the resources.
Tbilisi Silk Road Forum 2019 was the third forum of a kind hosted by the capital of Georgia October 22-23 and the conclusive part of the event was the numerous B2B meetings. In total, over 2000 delegates from more than 60 countries participated in the Forum.