The President of Georgia visited Kutaisi today, where the ceremonial events regarding the “Kutaisoba” holiday are being held all day. Mikheil Saakashvili toured the ongoing projects in the city and opened several new facilities. First of all, he opened the Drama Theater named after Lado Meskhishvili, which is the largest one in the country with the capacity for 800 guests. The Head of State addressed the audience gathered at the theater and congratulated them on “Ormaisoba.” Mikheil Saakashvili focused attention on the rehabilitation of Kutaisi, the country in general, and noted that Kutaisi must become the second capital of Georgia. Its transformation into a parliamentary capital will assist the development of the city even more. By decentralizing Tbilisi, this city will gain new functions, which will ease overcoming the unemployment problem in the region. As the President noted, development of tourism, economy, and industry will turn Kutaisi not only into a center of Georgia and a comfortable place to live, but give it a very important and decisive role across Europe as well. The Head of State also spoke about unification of the country. According to him, the process should start from this city and he expressed hope that the rehabilitation that has started will accelerate reaching the general goals.

The President of Georgia moved from the theater to the central square of the city, where he opened a new fountain decorated by the gold-plated copies of monuments discovered as a result of archaeological excavations. Mikheil Saakashvili decorated the architect of the “Sakartvelo” movie theater, opera rehabilitated theater, TBC bank building, the Kutaisi main square, and the new fountain projects - Davit Gogichaishvili, with the Presidential Order of Excellence. The President symbolically decorated the merited architect at the same square.

“We have Georgian architects, who are creating fountains of world significance. 90% of the planned projects in Georgia must be implemented by Georgians. The project of the new fountain as well as the new stadium in Batumi belongs to Davit Gogichaishvili. He went abroad several years ago to get an education and he is using his gained knowledge in his country. This young man is the inventor of this fountain, but this may be the least that he has done” – stated Mikheil Saakashvili.

Mikheil Saakashvili also opened the monument of The Girl from the Parochial School, which is erected in front of the 3^rd Public School of Kutaisi. The new monument is the symbol of kind affairs of 20^th century of girls, who studied at the parochial school – they sold daisies in the boulevard and helped people infected with tuberculoses with the money received from  the sales.

At the end of the day, the President of Georgia visited the figurative art museum named after Davit Kakabadze, where his personal exhibition was displayed to honor 60 years after the passing of Davit Kakabadze. Mikheil Saakashvili viewed the exhibits, which were kept in the family of the painter and have not been exhibited since 1928.