The President of Georgia opened the International Environmental Protection Conference “Tbilisi +35.” Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the attending audience and spoke about the environmental issues while focusing on achievements of the country in this regard. As the Head of State noted, Georgia was not an independent country and had completely different challenges when the environmental protection conference was held here for the first time. According to the President, many things have changed in the country since then, and the country has made many steps forward in this regard. He distinguished the issue of electric cars, which is being implemented step by step in the country with the initiative of the government. Mikheil Saakashvili also touched on the reforms implemented in the country in terms of fighting corruption, crime, and simplifying services and spoke about achieved results.

“There hasn’t been such a representative international conference in Georgia since the country regained independence. Our enemy has tried greatly to make Georgia disappear from the map and it keeps trying, but it is actually achieving the opposite results. Our ambassadors have gathered from around the entire world in the last two days. This is what every country does, they bring them, ask for their advice and give them orders…this is a usual occurrence and we do this every year. The ambassadorial has gathered, and take a look at the list of our speakers: the NATO Secretary General, Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Argentina and Poland; the Foreign Minister of Fiji has arrived from thousands of kilometers away. This means that people have arrived from around the entire world to give advice to our ambassadors, support Georgia, and assist in specific issues. This means that our small country has gained global significance. This means that our country has something that emphasizes its uniqueness, and this is first of all caused by our achievements. We still have a lot of problems; many people still live in poverty, but despite all of this we have done tremendous things. We are bringing people from various countries so that they learn more about Georgia. We have to work considerably to overcome poverty and these problems” – stated Mikheil Saakashvili.

The “Tbilisi +35” Forum is two days long and over 300 delegates from 105 countries are participating, including the Ministers of Environmental Protection from 45 countries.