On May 3-31, in Tbilisi, at Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel, 13th Local Economic Development Forum under the title “Sustainable Development – Green, Smart, Business-Friendly” was held. 

The main goal of the event was the experience, modern approaches and ideas sharing, which creates sustainable and enduring prospects for further cooperation in terms of the cities’ development. 

Tbilisi Mayor, Kakha Kaladze opened the event. 

“The variety of topics presented on the LED Forum unveils the modern, global tendencies and needs of the urban lifestyle. I would like to express my immense gratitude towards the event partners, the local and international speakers, as well as the international organizations, who’s been supporting and jointly working with us for the cities and the regions sustainable development and resilience,” said Mayor Kakha Kaladze in his opening speech. 

Chief of Mission of IOM Georgia, Mrs. Sanja Celebic participated in the LED Forum official opening ceremony, and during her opening speech she paid particular attention to the ongoing migration processes in the country as well as emphasized the joint efforts of the organization and local governments regarding the migration process management through various projects and strategic approaches.  

“We work together on raising awareness of migration trends and dynamic that is affecting the local level and various communities and we also work on increasing the capacity of the municipalities to engage in migration governance at the local level,“ said Chief of Mission of IOM Georgia, Mrs. Sanja Celebic Lukovac. 

After the official opening, in the framework of the event, on May 30, Tbilisi City Hall and IOM Georgia jointly hosted discussion panel under the title – “Migration Influence on City’s Development.”

The panel participant Georgian experts discussed the municipality role and function in the returnees’ sustainable reintegration process, underlined key challenges and responding opportunities. The foreign experts invited to the panel presented a tool adopted by IOM - the Local Migration Governance Indicators (LMGI) and focused on success stories of assessing national migration governance approaches worldwide, helping selected local authorities in different countries to take stock of local migration strategies and initiatives in place and identify the potential for further development.  

Furthermore, the preliminary insights of the Local MGI process in Tbilisi, were presented during the panel discussion. 

LED Forum has been organized since 2007, in the framework of which Tbilisi hosts number of local and international speakers. 

The event was held with the support of EU-UNDP M4EG, IOM Georgia, Embassy of Denmark in Georgia and Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia.