The President of Georgia met with Georgian doctors working in the United States. Mikheil Saakashvili spoke to them about the reforms implemented in the healthcare sector. According to the Head of State, Georgia will soon become the center of Eastern Europe in terms of medicine. The President also touched on the issue of developing the resort zones in the country and noted that tourism has a large potential in this sense.

“The medical sector is developing noticeably in Georgia. 150 large and small clinics are being opened around the entire country. I have a claim that we are creating the most modern medical system across Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet space. We already have several large hospitals in Tbilisi and the Koreans are now building one more 200 bed hospital, which will cost about 250-300 million USD. I think it will be the largest of all newly-opened medical centers in Eastern Europe and the Post-Soviet space. A medical sector is being recreated in Georgia; not one which envisions serving a small country with 5 million residents, but one that will make Georgia the center for the entire region and like tourism, this will bring a great deal of  income to the economy of Georgia” – noted Mikheil Saakashvili.

The President of Georgia also drew attention to the importance of developing rehabilitation resorts and noted that the country has a huge resource in this sense. According to him, it is important that many professional and qualified workers emerge. Mikheil Saakashvili asked the doctors working in the United States to get involved in this process and share their knowledge and experience with their Georgian colleagues.

“Every person has the instinct to return to their homeland however, in this case I am not taking advantage of your patriotic feelings. There is a relevant economic environment in Georgia. We are becoming a country of big potential for each one of you. A lot of professionals have returned to Georgia and created successful practices, which is caused partially by idealism and partially by real opportunities. I want to call on each one of you to use these opportunities and think seriously about this issue. You can do a lot of things in Georgia boldly as well as create new technologies and innovations. At the same time there are many regulations in Europe and the United States and it is a larger bureaucratic process. We are maximally limiting this in Georgia so that we are able to create the process of adopting new technologies as fast for example, as in South Korea. Our doctors practically did not practice for 15 years, but a lot of time will pass until their work brings high qualification. You can help them in raising qualification, which unfortunately our doctors have lost in the years of being static and living in ruins. This is why it is important that you arrive and share the world’s most modern experience with our doctors. New methods have to be adopted in Georgia. Georgians will learn everything fast, but for this they need someone to teach them. In the past there were no patients and no equipment, but frankly speaking a doctor is more important than equipment. This is why we provide new knowledge for our doctors in this direction” – stated the President of Georgia.