Press Releases
Supporting Tourism
With the support of the Adjaran government and its tourism department, AGL organized a conference on the development of tourism in upper Adjara, hosted by the Hilton Batumi on December 15. The conference’s objective was to create new opportunities for the development of tourism in highland Adjara by involving the public, private, and NGO sectors.
The event was attended by the CEO of AGL Ronny Solberg, the head of Adjara’s Tourism Department Mamuka Berdzenishvili, the Chief Operations officer of the Shuakhevi HPP Naresh Telgu, AGL’s director of land and social issues Zviad Diasamidze, Minister of Agriculture of Adjara candidate Lasha Komakhidze, the director of the Batumi Botanical Garden Irakli Archaia, and representatives from the public, private, and non-governmental sectors.
AGL’s CEO Ronny Solberg said, “The goal of our meeting today is to bring the public, private, and NGO sectors together to discuss new ways to support the region’s long-term sustainable development. Even though construction will finish soon, our social programs will carry on during the operating stage, which means that our active participation in Adjara’s development will continue. Our new direction in corporate social responsibility is to support tourism in mountainous Adjara.”
Mamuka Berdzenishvili, the head of Adjara’s Tourism Department, stated, “In 2017, one million laris will be spent on the development of tourism in highland Adjara. We increased the budget of the Tourism Product Development Agency to a million laris in order to support development and promote tourism products in areas beyond the seaside. This year alone, the Agency has implemented important projects such as creating and marking tourism routes and organizing different thematic festivals, but the Agency’s projects will become even more extensive next year. As for today’s conference, our objective is to increase private sector involvement in tourism development in mountainous Adjara and to promote effective cooperation.”
Naresh Teglu, the Chief Operation Officer of the Shuakhevi HPP, went on to present AGL’s social responsibility work, he stated: ,, Shuakhevi HPP is a project that is significantly improving the lives of the people living in the project area. Our social projects are helping to promote the region’s long-term development in areas such as education and awareness raising, infrastructure development, and community strengthening. One of the most promising areas of development in highland Adjara is tourism. Today’s conference is an ideal opportunity to discuss and review challenges like these and to explore directions for fully developing the tourist potential of highland Adjara.’’
The conference included a discussion on current challenges facing tourism in mountainous Adjara. During this discussion, participants defined ways to assist tourism development and created important preconditions for AGL’s long-term plans for developing tourism in upper Adjara.
The company’s initiative was discussed by representatives of the business sector participating in the conference. “Adjaristsqali Georgia is the largest investor in Georgia’s energy sector, which is crucially important for the country’s economy and development. At the same time, the company is implementing projects that are directly related to social responsibility and rural development. The best thing about these projects is that both the private and public sectors, as well as NGOs, are involved in this process” remarked Tite Aroshidze, a conference participant.
Since construction first began, the company has focused on the long-term development of highland Adjara by implementing more than 70 social projects in the Shuakhevi and Khulo municipalities in areas such as education and awareness raising, community strengthening, and infrastructure development.
