Guest of Honour:

The Forum will feature three discussion panels:
Panel 1

Economic outlook for the countries of Baltic-Black Sea-Caspian “belt”: lessons from the crisis and recipes for recovery. Though Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan 20 years ago where parts of USSR, countries followed quite different routes in political and economic development. Despite the crisis, Azerbaijan had economic growth of 9% in 2009 and 5% in 2010. Baltic states, despite being part of EU, suffered hardly from the crisis – in Latvia GDP fell 18% in 2009. Radical regulatory and anti-corruption reforms in Georgia put it on the 12 rank globally by ease of doing business.

Panel 2

IT Technologies for finance profession: business benefits. How implementation of newest IT technologies in finance (SAP, XBRL, other) make businesses around the region more successful, profitable, and competitive. As from 2010, it is possible to submit annual reports in Estonia by using XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) technology based on the Estonian taxonomy. How accountants and finance people, using new technologies, earn more money for shareholders.

Panel 3

Talent management and professional development of accountants: best practices and cases. What challenges are facing finance professionals in the sphere of professional development, and how the best value for money can be achieved in different countries.