Hello everyone. I would really love to shake hands with every one of you. Talking with you is a great pleasure for me. That is the president's privilege. First of all, I want to tell you that nothing makes me happier than hearing the noise of a working Georgian factory, this working Azoti plant in Rustavi.

We have received a very heavy blow from a certain level of the Russian government. Russia has completely closed its market to Georgian and Moldovan wine and brandy. This is happening when last year Georgia processed three times as many grapes and produced three times as much wine as before the revolution [November 2003]. Counterfeiting has been cut by ten times or more. Counterfeit Georgian wine practically no longer exists, yet Russia has closed its market to us on the pretext of counterfeiting.

I was in Kakheti [eastern Georgia] yesterday to meet growers and winemakers. We will take very firm steps to save this sector of the economy. We have decided, I decided today, to purchase several hundred additional tractors for Kakheti especially and other wine producing districts and create a scheme so that every vineyard owner can use the newest, high-quality technology for very low or almost symbolic prices. At our own expense we will import tractors, raise money, and as I decided this morning, we will provide Kakhetian farmers and those from other regions with several hundred tractors. That is the first decision.

In addition, we will begin providing free saplings and vine cuttings to farmers. We will plant saplings that produce varieties of fruit that are in greater demand in European markets. We have begun working actively with countries in Eastern Europe, with Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland, and I am certain that the majority of produce intended for Russia we will certainly be able to sell in other countries to spite those who want to choke and destroy Georgia with this embargo.

At the same time, we should understand that we should all tighten our belts. I warned our winemakers last year that there was a major chance that Russia would close its markets for its own particular reasons. Everyone should tighten their belts and I am certain that no-one will be able to damage us enough to destroy us. We will seek out new markets, find new opportunities and we will also certainly return to the Russian market. That is our very firm decision.

We will bring in free tractors, provide free saplings for farmers. Three years are required to establish a new vineyard and I have looked three or five years into the future. We will step up the fight against counterfeiting, we will have many advertising campaigns around the world for our wine, we, the government, will buy lots of airtime on various television stations and buy newspaper advertising. The state will do it to popularize our wine. We will arrange wine forums in Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, Turkey and Poland, which are already planned. We will bring many winemakers to Tbilisi and I am certain they will like our produce. We will break this blockade.

We will not gratify Georgia's ill-wishers, we will not gratify those people abroad who think they have destroyed us nor those inside the country rubbing their hands together and saying that we are doomed because Russia is helping them and has closed its markets.

They cannot choke us, they cannot destroy us. The evil forces cannot win, even if they use the filthiest tricks. Cutting off the wine was the filthiest thing they could have done to us. This filthy force cannot win. This evil force cannot win. I am certain of that because they are not dealing with a Georgian government and a Georgian people cowering in the corner. They are dealing with people who stoically survived the energy sabotage, people who ceaselessly work to strengthen the country's defences and the country in general, including the people who make these products here in cooperation with Russia, people who are so creative and who are so capable of defending their interests that they will find other markets, improve the quality, use better wine bottles and labels and will return to the Russian market with double the force and take it by storm.

Of course, the Georgian government will work every day to protect us from such unpleasant things. Since I became president, not a single important factory has stopped working, not one. Dozens have begun operating. I want to be able to say by the end of the year that hundreds have begun working.

I want to say that when they closed off the mandarin market, we brought mandarin packaging equipment from Italy and we can now wax, pack and ship them to other countries. Russia does not let our citrus fruit in, we have already agreed and we will send them instead to Romania, Bulgaria, Central Asia, Ukraine and other countries. We now have that technology. Before we didn't. This blockade has only strengthened us.

If they close off the market for apples, as they have done, we have already opened a new factory in Agara and more will be opened. We will process our apples, make juice and concentrates, pack them well and export them because we have great apples and there is demand for them. If they close the market for hazelnuts, we now have a huge nut processing plant in Samegrelo and nuts will go out to America, Europe and every other country where there is great demand for our hazelnuts. If they close off the timber market, which they have also done, we are starting to process timber to a European level, with new plants opening in eastern and western Georgia. We have new legislation which will simplify things for those businesses. We will export this high quality processed timber and we will also use it here.

We have to survive, we should not grumble. We should show Georgia's opponents, those who want us to be destroyed, that we are people who can be forced to change decisions through blockades and embargoes. These are people who will not relinquish Abkhazia because of blockades, these are people who will not relinquish Tskhinvali because of blockades, these are not people who will not relinquish freedom and development because of blockades. These are people who value friendship and we want friendship with Russia. Look, this factory is a result of friendship with Russia. We value friendship but we will always defend our interests. We want lots of friends, but we are always prepared to fight to the end for our interests, above all our economy. I am certain that your factory is a ray of hope for the rest of Georgia.

Now the Georgian state is your ally. Together we will work miracles and move mountains. As for the political prophets of our imminent doom abroad, together we will rub their noses in it. Thank you for your attention.

This translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading UK

Communications Office
of the President of Georgia