At the same time, Russian and Georgian economic ties have deepened with the hosting of a two day economic forum in Tbilisi, (SARKE-PRESS DIGEST, 19 Oct 03; BBC Monitoring via Lexis-Nexis) which is slated to discuss joint Russian-Georgian projects worth an estimated $10 billion in areas such as internal development of roads, links, and railways in Georgia. (ITAR-TASS , 16 Oct 03 FBIS-SOV-2003-1016