Resources and responsibilities continued thousand. Up to 20 students study at no cost, while The Bank has been supporting every single TEDx Tbilisi 40 students benefit from a 0% loan with grace period conference since they were first organised in 2012. A TEDx until graduation. Bank of Georgia University provides its conference is a locally organised TED format event, where students with hands-on experience by offering them the communities, organisations and individuals join to initiate possibility to observe various business processes at the a conversation and connect with each other on different Group’s companies. topics, which are important to society. In 2013, the Bank became the first Georgian company to In 2018, Bank of Georgia became a general sponsor of the cooperate with one of the most prestigious scholarship Georgian National Olympic Committee, which the Bank programmes in the world – the Chevening scholarship. will support in all of its planned sports activities up until This cooperation provides Georgian students with an 2020. In 2018, the Bank granted monetary awards to the opportunity to pursue education in the UK. In 2018, the best young Georgian sportsman of 2018, selected by the Group provided up to GBP 100 thousand to finance Georgian National Olympic Committee, and to the winner a master’s degree programme for three students. The of the boys’ Greco-Roman 60kg competition at the 2018 partnership with Chevening will continue next year and Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The the Group is looking forward to selecting students who Bank’s partnership with the Georgian National Olympic will continue their studies in the UK. Committee aims to support and popularise sport in Georgia, to raise awareness of Georgian athletes and to provide information on Olympic Games. Case study In 2018, Bank of Georgia’s Corporate Investment Banking team organised a charity auction-exhibition of modern Georgian paintings and invited its top In 2014, the Bank signed a partnership agreement with clients to participate in the cause. As a result, the prestigious US Fulbright scholarship scheme. Thanks US$ 75,000 collected from the auction was rounded to the Bank of Georgia’s contribution, a selected number to US$ 100,000 by the Bank and the amount is of students from Georgia are able to enrol in a two-year directed at financing extremely talented children from master’s degree programme at a US university. In 2018, Georgia’s highlands. The first batch of five children the funding provided to the students for their two-year will study English in summer school in the UK. These degrees amounted to US$ 50 thousand. Since 2014, the children gained huge popularity on social media for Bank has granted US$ 300 thousand to the US Fulbright popularising Georgian regions. scholarship programme. Starting from 2018, Bank of Georgia supports San Diego State University (SDSU) Georgia. For 2018-2019 academic year the Bank will finance the scholarships for ten students in the amount of up to US$ 80 thousand. Over the last four years, the Bank has been supporting a public speaking competition organised by the English Speaking Union Georgia. The competition allows high school senior year or first year university students to prepare a speech on a pre-selected topic and present it in front of a competent jury. The winner is granted a fully paid trip to In our effort to spread internet access to financially London to attend a global public speaking competition. disadvantaged families in Georgia, we support a social We aim to support this competition in 2019 as well. enterprise www.charte.ge. We believe that this project is crucial for access to education. In 2018, we granted laptops and access to internet to 19 families near the conflict zone in the village of Dvani. 78 Annual Report 2018Bank of Georgia Group PLC