I would like to welcome you all. I think you are beginning the most interesting, memorable, romantic and possibly the most difficult stage in your lives. I would like to congratulate you and thank you. I want to thank you and your parents, your teachers and everyone who helped you and believed in the system we have created. In Georgia, ever since I was born, exams have been a source of corruption. In 1970s I remember queues of parents at the medical university. I remember fainted students and parents, and the commission locked into the building. But still, people were paying 50-60 thousand rubles to enter the university.

One of my relatives from Kakheti sold Volga made car and two houses, one in Kakheti with its vineyard, and the other in Tbilisi in order his son, who had been taking entrance exams at the medical university for seven years, could pass them.

There was the whole system of corruption in the country.

I myself had been applying to Tbilisi State University and was to study in Kiev on the faculty of international law. I was specially prepared according to the Russian school curriculum and as far as I had a golden medal I had to get five only in one exam. It absolutely was not a problem for me.

We were warned beforehand that the results of the exams were already arranged and thus advised us not to apply. I had not the written exam finished when the three examiners grabbed it and started writing something in blue ink in my paper. The reason for doing so was not to allow me pass the exam.

If not one blessed lecturer (later I found out her name - Tina Agladze, senior lecturer) who took my paper away from them, I did not have any chance to pass the exam.

That year I became a student.

The reason I'm telling it is for you to know that descent and honest people still existed at that time.

However, the whole system worked to ensure the nonexistence of a single descent person in the country and not to let anyone become a student with their knowledge.

Everything worked like this.

Entrance examination system that we used this year had been introduced for the first time in 1997 when we held exams for judges. Then everybody was against us.

At that time we printed examination tests in San Francisco and with the help of the Americans brought them to Georgia with a diplomatic post.

Not a single old, corrupt judge turned up at the examination. We successfully held the exam and many passed it.

Those judges did not turn up at the second exam either. I thought they guessed and stopped bothering us.

But at the third exam everyone turned up. I felt dubious about it.

Every corrupt judge got the highest score in the test, which was similar to the general ability test. All of the corrupt judges got not less than 90 out of possible 100 points, while really well prepared judges could not manage to exceed 75 points.

It became clear that somebody sold the test sheets.

The next step was a written test. The night before the exam I went to that time Justice Minister, Lado Chanturia, who worked with us on the test. We invited several prominent professors, including present Prosecutor General, Zurab Adeishvili, my deputy at that time, and rewrote all the test questions.

I wrote the international relations related questions, Mr. Adeishvili wrote the ones on administrative law, Mr. Chanturia - on civil law and professor Zurab Akhvlediani wrote the questions on public law.

It took us the whole night and we finished just 15 minutes afore the exam.

At 8 a.m. we told the test participants that in order to protect their knowledge we changed all the questions. All the corrupt judges left the hall without even trying to take a test.

That is how we were struggling for justice and building the system.

But the most important is - what we are introducing now in Georgia and what will make it a successful country - social justice and equal opportunities.

Do you know what does corruption mean? Corruption does not just mean some policemen or officials taking a bribe. Corruption means that however clever, talented or hard-working you are, it is always the same people who find money, the same people whose children study in good institutes and good schools and then find work. It means that the whole country is sidelined. No longer will anyone be able to recreate this system in Georgia.

Today, those who are as clever, talented, hard-working and ambitious as you are will succeed through their own merits. Did it not use to be the case that Tbilisi meant Georgia and that the people from Vake and Vera [Tbilisi districts] meant Tbilisi? I don't have anything against them, of course, I was once the MP for the Vake constituency. However, this year people from Oni in Racha [province] are at the top of the list of those entering Tbilisi's higher education institutions because in Racha's Oni District two-thirds of the 51 applicants were accepted as students and the majority of them received grants. They don't even know what a private tutor is in Oni - that profession does not exist in the countryside.

Speaking earlier here was Ana Mamukelashvili from Telavi who came top [in the national university entrance exams], the absolute champion in Georgia is from Kakheti and I am delighted. Well done, Kakhetians.

Three Ossetians from Tskhinvali who faced all kinds of barriers, such as the attempt to make sure that not a single Georgian school remains in Tskhinvali, came here, sat the exams and despite everything became students of Georgia's higher education institutions.

Students from Tsalenjikha are among the best ten.

Pereidani valley [Iran] is farther than Tsalenjikha, but two our Iranian compatriots, came to Georgia and without any protectionism sat the exams and won the state grant even though they had to pass exams in Georgian language, which is too difficult to learn in Iran.

Nana Balajaeva from the village of Aliabada, Zakatala region, Azerbaijan, sat the exams in Georgian, won the state grant and got better scores than many Georgian citizens did.

Two blind entrants took the exams by a special system, got enough scores and became the students. I am proud of these young people.

Irakli Chkonia from Kobuleti won the grant and became Georgian Technical University student without any help from private tutors or any patronage.

Tamta Mindiashvili from a remote village in Tkibuli, from where one has to change five buses to get to Tbilisi, came and entered Technical University.

Malkhaz Gogua, a refugee from Abkhazia, like hundreds of others of our fellow countrymen from Abkhazia has won a place. They will certainly return there and we will give them places in one of the Sukhumi higher education institutions before they have graduated.

And there are many others like them.

You have a difficult road to pass.

Georgia started developing and we are just at the beginning of the road.

There are people in Georgia who disregard the changes or do not even notice them. But we have achieved almost everything possible in a year and a half, it is almost a miracle, but this is just the beginning. We are living in a very competitive world. This year the price of oil throughout the world has almost doubled. Why? It is because the Chinese have learnt how to work and how to study. The Chinese study, work, make goods and need oil. The price of oil is growing because of such great demand, which means, friends, that if we do not keep up with all those countries moving forward, we will fall by the wayside and be lost in the ocean of countries and no-one will ask after us. If we are to catch up, you are the ones to do it, because you are not afraid of competition, contests, learning or work and we will be the strongest and we will show the world that we can achieve something.

We must understand that we are one big family.

For instance in Malaysia everybody, starting from taxi drivers, students or officers say that their country is the best and the most beautiful, with a huge human resources and educated people. They always encourage you to invest in their country while convincing you that there is peace and stability there.

We have to learn to live like this.

What is the situation like in Georgia? - My cousin who lives in the US came to Georgia and took his car to the car wash. He was so excited about having come to Georgia that he gave 20 lari instead of 7 to the car washer. The car washer was so dissatisfied with his job (however he earned 20 lari in just several minutes) that he kept swearing Georgia, its government and the people.

Such thing wouldn't happen in the US.

Everyone must understand that there does not exist a shameful job - every job is respectable.

I have nothing against Turkey, it is a very good and rapidly developing country, but 250 Turkish workers are building roads in the center of Tbilisi, while the Georgian guys stand nearby eating sunflower and criticizing the workers. Later they keep grumbling that nobody takes care of them and nobody gives them a job.

Is it shameful if you can support your family, invite your girlfriend to the caf, or buy an ice cream?

Or you consider that it is shameful just because the guys in your district would see you working.

Unless we change our psychology and mentality we would not become a successful country.

The first stage was increasing public sector salaries, because if the police, customs officers and soldiers do not have salaries, then the whole of society will be in a difficult state. The second stage is infrastructure - we are building roads and energy infrastructure. If there is no electricity, how can businesses develop? We are now at this second stage. In Tbilisi by the end of next year there will be almost no bad roads left. There will no longer be a problem with roads and you will go to university using new roads. Next year, in the spring, we will begin building the motorway from Tbilisi to Batumi and then from Tbilisi to Sukhumi. I am certain that the first stage from Tbilisi to Gori we will begin this March.

If at the end of the week you go to Ajaria, where there is going to be a big festival - you will see that Ajaria in September is just as good as in the summer - you will see Georgia opening a major tunnel and a motorway through it for the first time in 15 years. There has not been this kind of construction project in Georgia for 25 years.

In the month of March we said that we would do it. Here you are, we have fulfilled our promise. Lets go to Batumi on Saturday and see what we are really able to do.

Some of you visited Borjomi this summer and saw a new park there. Lets see the Borjomi Park next year also.

Next year nobody would wish to go to the Disneyland. They would come to Georgia to see the park.

I want to remind you that we are in a competitive world. However, you should know that a computer-equipped student in Georgia connected to the Internet has the same opportunities as a computer-equipped student in California, Malaysia or Russia. There is already competition in intelligence and talent. I am certain that in this arena, in the Internet, where there is a contest of ideas and innovation, Georgians have something to teach everyone and can set an example, although the most important thing is that we are not lazy and show them that we are strong and capable of achieving something.

However, to achieve this we must learn foreign languages. We need English, Turkish and Russian because we trade with these countries and compete with them. We must learn the languages of other neighbouring countries, we need Chinese and Japanese, because they have large economies. We also need, of course, Megrelian, Svan and the other languages of Georgia's peoples. We are strong, but we need to let the other peoples of the world know this and it is better to do it in their languages, because if we speak in Georgian they might not understand what we want and what we are capable of.

I would like to thank Kakha Lomaia and that group of idealists, who despite being sworn at, set up a system under which we received only few minor complaints.

Today you are really the firsts.

The Ministry of Education has successfully fulfilled its commitment to hold the first objective nationwide exams.

The whole world saw that you are the firsts not only in Georgia but in the former soviet space. You have shown and proved to everybody that it is possible to hold objective exams.

We are proud of you.

You are the firsts who made it happen. Now the groups of people from the education ministries of Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and former soviet countries come to Georgia to study the methods and share our experience.

I would like to mention that the Interior Ministry was the first to get the mission to create that kind of patrol police, which would have been loved by the public.

They made it happen. People love the police force. We are proud of our police. They are also the firsts and I would like to thank them also.

I would like to tell you that the Interior Ministry now for the first time is given a chance to build a small, but efficient, modern and professional army.

We are proud of the first soldiers, who are protecting our homeland.

The Ministry of Energy has a mission to drag Georgia out of a blackout and lighten the whole country for the first time in winter.

Our financial agencies are the firsts who have managed to increase the budget revenue and enabled us to give salaries to our professors, lecturers and civil servants, which is sufficient enough to support families and not to lead the corrupt way of life.

For the first time after gaining independence we have free emergency service. We have worked a lot with the Ministry of Health to realize it.

For the first time after gaining independence we created a young patriots movement and set up patriotic camps. Let's say hello to all of them.

For the first time in Georgia, after 15 years of destructions and hopelessness we started building schools, hospitals, roads, hotels etc.

After so many years Georgia is starting to stand on its feet.

You are the children of the country, whose citizens can be proud of their nationality.

When I was studying at the Kiev University, I was very proud to be Georgian. It was the most pleasant feeling.

Every time I was saying I was Georgian a special feeling of dignity mastered me.

This feeling was absolutely lost in the past years.

I met one Georgian in France who told me he was Arab.

Now, for the first time, Georgia's name is spoken proudly all over the world and you know this. Our revolution inspired movements in Ukraine and the whole of Ukraine knows that, in Lebanon and the whole of the Arab world knows that, in Kyrgyzstan and the whole of Central Asia knows that. They know about it all over the world.

A few days ago I was watching the Ethiopian prime minister on television saying that Georgia's Rose Revolution would never happen in Ethiopia. That reminded me of [former Ukrainian President Leonid] Kuchma two years ago who said, do not think Ukraine is like Georgia, there are no roses here and a revolution won't happen.

Fidel Castro speaks of Georgia in fear. When they told Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, that I was Georgia's president, his reaction was very strange because day and night he said on television that Georgia would never be repeated in Zimbabwe. I don't want it to be repeated - every country has its own path.

When the US President visited Georgia in May he said: "The Georgians created the most powerful moment in modern history"

Indeed we did so.

Freedom makes many achievements possible and releases much energy.

Two years ago nobody knew even a single line or word of the national anthem in Georgia, including the former president.

Now each of you and every child knows the national anthem by heart.

We have the most beautiful, the most expressive flag in the world, and everybody in the world knows that it is a Georgian flag.

Our generation made it happen. This is your flag.

You are the generation who knows the importance of the state symbols and is proud of their country.

You are the generation that will save this country with your knowledge. Today the most important weapon is not a tank or a plane, it is knowledge and belief in your own ability.

How important it is to have the feeling that not only my house and its surroundings belong to me but the whole county - Tbilisi, Batumi, Telavi, Gori, Sukhumi or Tskhinvali are mine!

All these are mine - ours.

It is a special feeling because one can't build a country without idealism.

Everybody creates things in his/her own sphere and everybody is opposed in his/her own field.

I know that we will have more to fight for.

A hullabaloo about Nino Ananiashvili was not really associated with the building itself. People started fighting against her just because they could not put up with the fact that she is a world-class Georgian professional, who received millions as an honorarium. The whole Russia was proud of her and was calling her a Russian ballerina.

Nino Ananiashvili permanently received offers from the world's leading opera and ballet theaters. But she declined every offer. She abandoned everything, returned to Georgia and started giving lessons in the damaged, destroyed buildings. She embarked on rebuilding the Georgian ballet and in just six months created a world-class ballet company.

This is an example to be proud of.

Everyone who fights against it lacks self-respect.

Those who say that we should not make either Tbilisi or Gori beautiful and should not build roads, lack the sense of pride.

Those who saw that hundreds of new cafes, discos, beaches and other new places had opened in Batumi this year, still don't like it and grumble that nothing has changed - these people have no sense of dignity and pride, because nothing will ever make these people happy.

Do you know what kind of people they are? - These people have no self-confidence and lack belief in their own abilities; they do not even believe they can be competitive.

You can remedy them since you are self-confident, you believe in your knowledge and abilities and your contribution.

Normally, in this case you believe in the bright future of your country and also in finding your place in it.

Hence, you have to remember one thing - do not look at anything or anybody without criticism, neither at President Saakashvili, nor at the government, nor at your professors, colleagues or foreigners that might give you some advice.

So to say, do not trust anything without criticizing, analyzing and discussing it.

Trust when you are confident about the issue. But one thing is to think critically, thoroughly analyzing everything and another thing is to never accept cynicism, indifference and hopelessness.

Never let these feelings affect you.

Majority of people in Georgia had been asking the same question within 15 years - is there any chance for the way out?

You never asked this question. Neither did we, since we said we would save our country. We would save our own selves and thus save our country. We will put all our efforts in it.

I also want to note that the new generation is extremely smart and brave. You are the people who know how to study and how to spend your leisure time. You are the people who at the decisive moment would put everything aside, take arms and defend your homeland.

We need people of new professions - inventors and the ones who will do everything by themselves. It is very difficult to find such people.

Frankly speaking, all the tunnel and road constructors as well as geologists and engineers fled the country.

More than a million of professionals left the country. You have to replace them. We need new qualified specialists.

You are smart and intelligent and you must work on yourselves because there will be nobody to replace you. You are the generation, which must save the country with your knowledge.

Neither arms nor tanks and air jets are the most important weapons today, but knowledge and self-confidence.

I would like to pass you a baton and tell you that after 20 years one of you will be standing here instead of me. However, it will be another Georgia.

Georgia will be the country that will never close its boarders, where there would not be any ethnic tension and any region where the Georgians would not have access just because they are Georgians.

Georgia will be the country where your children and you will move freely everywhere.

People will no longer be divided into Ossetians, Russians, Abkhazians, Azerbaijanis, and Armenians in Georgia since we are all the citizens of a united, strong, successful and one of the most popular countries in the world.

You and we will achieve it by all means.

But before that we would have to roll back every attack and confront challenges.

Don't be afraid, the most important is to study hard.

It may happen so that you would not take an exam just because you quarreled with your girlfriend or a boyfriend. The similar thing also happened to me.

You may become interested in some other things or decide to change the profession, since man always seeks and always finds out something new.

You may decide to quit studying at the university, however it happens quite rarely and the similar cases must be very few, since every place at the university is very important to us.

We are creating a youth training centers for those who could not enter the university. We will do everything to help them.

You must not forget the most important thing - you can do everything, you can achieve everything and there is nothing either in Georgia or in the whole world, which our students - educated, intelligent, sophisticated and beautiful citizens of Georgia cannot achieve.

You are able to overcome every difficulty and make your country and yourself successful.

Thank you very much.

Part of this translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading UK

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia