I want to salute everyone, the Patriarch, members of the Holy Synod, the ambassadors accredited in Georgia, the Government of Georgia and what is most important, I want to salute the Georgian people.

I want to salute those people, who brought us in this hall, those people, who are keeping a close eye on us constantly and waiting that we keep all those promises, which we have given them.

I want to salute the multi-ethnic population of Georgia. Diversity is not our weakness, but it is our strength.

Each representative of all ethnic groups of Georgia should feel that they are the representatives of the unified Georgian nation and they have a share in Georgia's victory and Georgia's future belongs to them as well.

I want to say that a great work has been done in this chamber together with the previous parliaments.

I want to express my gratitude to the chairperson of the previous parliament Nino Burjanadze for the useful and good job she did.

I want to thank each member of the parliament, including those, who have not been elected in the parliament, but who have greatly contributed to the victory of the Georgian state, to strengthening of the Georgian state.

Our people assigned us with a great duties and a great role. I am glad that the people of various ages are represented in this parliament.

There are young people, as well as more experienced and elderly people.

I am glad that the representatives of all regions of Georgia are represented here.

Naturally, all the regions are represented here expect for those, where peace has not come yet and where the parliamentary elections were not held, excluding the Upper Kodori Gorge.

I want to say that this term of our parliament should be the term of poverty reduction, of creating new jobs, eradication of those serious problems, which we all have inherited.

We have worked much to eradicate these problems, but much more is still to be done.

This is the term of our spiritual strengthening; this is the term of further building of our state; this is the term of further strengthening of links between the State and the Church; as well as the term of protection of all other confessions in Georgia.

The entire world is looking at Georgia today. The Georgian people have overcome the most difficult political crisis last autumn at the expense of democratic consolidation. We have managed to overcome the political crisis with the help of democratic institutions, to solve all problems through peaceful democratic methods.

I want to address our people - we will justify your hopes. I want to address all those people in Georgia, who voted for us and who voted for various opposition parties - regardless of any personal insults, regardless of any attacks against us, we should remember that it does not matter; our key value is Georgia's unity, we have no compatriots to lose regardless of their political opinion.

We have no luxury to divide Georgia into moderates and radicals, aggressive and less aggressive.

Our obligation is to offer a hand to each of our compatriot; our obligation is to make our compatriots feel that they are represented in the country's governance; even the smallest group should feel that it has the right to be represented in the country's governance, in making decisions about the future of our country.

Your parliament will have to solve a historical task - I am absolutely sure of it. Consequent years are the years of solving historical tasks for Georgia.

I want to tell you that when last year I made a decision to resign and appoint early elections, I was proceeding not from the fact that we would have failed to maintain power, but I was proceeding from the fact that we needed further consolidation of our country, that future years are decisive for Georgia and therefore we need a new mandate, new energy for reforms, because we cannot leave the reforms we have launched halfway.

Georgia's future is in undertaking further reforms. People gave us such a strong mandate because people trusted us.

We should meet all those commitments, which we have taken before the people.

I want to wish you great success in the parliament's activities.

I want to announce the session of the new parliament open.

We all should understand that everything is still ahead. Our work starts now.

God give you force to meet people's expectations.

God bless our country!

Press Office
of the President of Georgia