President Mikheil Saakashvili, the Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze and other government officials visited Kutaisi today to observe roads reconstruction works and other events there. President Saakashvili talked to the residents of Kutaisi and promised that not a single damaged road or school will exist in the city. According to President Saakashvili special training and retraining centers will be set up in Kutaisi that will enable people of all ages to qualify in different fields. President Saakashvili said that this winter Kutaisi will not basically have energy shortage for the first time after so many years. 
President Saakashvili opened a monument of Akaki Tsereteli, the Georgian poet, at Akaki Tsereteli Kutaisi State University and addressed the students: "This University has one of the biggest traditions. Arnold Chikobava, Korneli Kekelidze and many our outstanding scientists gave lectures at this university . . . I must tell you that it is very important for me to have met you. I would like to congratulate you on the anniversary of your university and tell you that the main priority of the Georgian revolutionary government is education. Creation of working places, development of the country and generating more revenues are impossible without education. Without education we will not restore territorial integrity of Georgia because our strongest weapon is education and we must beat our enemies, which are much stronger than we are, with our brains," he said. 

President Saakashvili also opened a national center for diagnosis and catastrophe built with the financial support of the USA. 

"I would like to greet you all and say that this day is very important for me since an ultramodern hospital has opened in Kutaisi, which is the first high-class hospital in Georgia. It is inconceivable, but the country, which still suffers from poverty and misery, has brought to power, as a result of a revolution, an action oriented government. People need a realigned education system, infrastructure improvement, electricity supply, proper roads, sports, employment and of course healthcare most of all. What has been created here is a real miracle. Very often we have a superficial approach towards everybody's activities. Minister of Health Lado Chipashvili with the Parliamentary team managed to achieve two things: the first, introducing free emergency service and the second, establishing modern healthcare centers. The medical equipments that I saw here today, I have seen only in New York and highly developed countries. Hence, I would like to congratulate you on this important success. We have managed to achieve these standards in Georgia. The similar center will also be opened in the east Georgia. We are also opening new big hospitals in Zugdidi, Gori, and other places in Georgia. Our objective is to pursue this path. I would like to thank Lado Chipashvili and the doctors who have been specially trained in Austria. Now it is very important to make this center affordable for everybody. We are creating high-class service standards for our people. I congratulate the citizens of Kutaisi on the establishment of such high-class international healthcare center here," President Saakashvili said when addressing the public. 

President Saakasahvili also visited a new prison, built in the outskirt of Kutaisi and opened a recreation center.

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia