Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili praised Georgia's pace of economic development in his speech at the opening of a Georgian-Turkish sewing plant in the village of Khelvachauri near the Ajarian capital Batumi on 7 September.

"Georgia was a country that was destroyed and ruined, but its pace of economic growth is now one of the highest in the world among the economies that do not extract oil," Saakashvili said and added that he did not know any other cities in the world except Shanghai and Dubai that were developing at a quicker pace than Batumi.

He said Georgia's economic growth had reached 13 per cent during the first six months of this year and he expected this figure to become even higher. "I have tasked the Georgian government to achieve a 13-15 per cent growth in 2007," Saakashvili noted.

He stressed that the main reasons for Georgia's "economic miracle that is taking place before our eyes" despite the Russian embargo were the "investment environment and foreign investments".

"This year, we expect at least 2 billion dollars of direct foreign investments, which is an absolute world record for countries of our size," he said and expressed confidence that he would see Georgia among 20 leading countries with the most advantageous business environment.

He pointed out the importance for Georgia of the new "ultramodern" enterprise that was opened in Khelvachauri, as it provided 1,000 new jobs, which he said was a very high figure for a town with a population of 100,000.

Saakashvili said that creating jobs was a priority for the Georgian government. "At the start of the next year, 10,000 people will be employed in this region's industry alone, which means that, very soon, it will be the problem of the lack of qualified workforce and workforce in general that we will face here, not the unemployment problem," he said and noted that the government was doing all it could to train necessary qualified workers.

"We do not have gas and oil, but we have political determination and our people's unity on taking precedence over many other countries with our decency and organized, disciplined, and hard work," Saakashvili said.

Prepared by BBC Monitoring

press Office
of the President of Georgia