I welcome everyone.

We have visited every district of Batumi today, which still have not been affected by the ongoing reconstruction in this city.

I wanted both Gia Baramidze and Levan Varshalomidze, who go there every day, to once again see what challenges we will face for the next four years, and what needs to be improved in our city.

Batumi is the hallmark of Georgia and the pride of the entire country, of each one of us and personally, my great pride.

I would like to tell you that we have huge plans, and it is obvious that not everyone has felt the development.

We had to begin from something and first we started from the first line.

It used to be one of the least illuminated, one of most desperate, miserable, a frightened and prospect-less place not only in Georgia, but in the world. That is why, the primary task was to change that.

The hotels we are looking at now, the technological university, the new boulevard…

Those who have no prospect for employment today, we are creating the training centers!

Those who live in barracks, we are building new houses!

I give you my word that there will be no barracks in Batumi and Batumi will be the first city in Georgia without barracks.

We are building a new technological university here, but this does not mean that we will not promote the existing universities. The new technological university, the existing university and other institutions have to become first class, the educational institution of international standards.

We will have the best students in Europe, and Batumi apart from being a tourism center, first of all, has to become the educational center in Georgia, in the Caucasus and Europe.

Batumi has to be a business and development center.

We are building the free financial zone of Ajara, and this zone is not for foreigners, but for the citizens of Georgia.

I do realize that there is still great poverty here. Every single family has to benefit from what is happening in the country.

You have to notice that your children have much greater prospects, that you are much safer and that the social services are working much better too.

There is the youth; a generation gathered here who made the Ajara revolution possible. Who would imagine that we would come this far?

Who would imagine that we would create such a city?

Who would imagine that the US State Secretary, who has seen the world, would talk about Batumi with such admiration?

Who would imagine that Donald Trump, who is so careful about his every word, would say that Batumi will become the best city in the world in five years? And so it will be – We will make it!

The best city means a city without barracks; a city without poverty!

First and foremost, it is a city of youth and hope. It is a city, which we all are developing together.

Who is confronting us today, what is our problem and who is our main opponent? We can talk about this in this theater, the Batumi summer theater, which Aslan Abashidze had burned down, just as he demolished the stadium, burned the circus, shut down the fountains on the main boulevard and erected his grandfather’s monument on their spot.

The people who demolished this theater, who burned the circus, demolished the stadium, who did everything to prevent the development of Ajara, are now still striving to come to power. 

The leader of one party is the an official, who is the closest person to Aslan Abashidze,, no offence to him, but I have a good memory and remember his activities in this kilometer and a half boulevard; on the other hand, there is a party who named the whole government of Aslan Abashidze as their candidates, and said that we have to apologize to Aslan…

My friends and sons, this building so far is like Batumi, like Ajara and Georgia. We lifted this building from ruins, it has a roof too, but sometimes the water leaks, the windows are not yet fixed…

We have two alternatives and we have to choose what is better – demolishing or building!

We all have built this yet unfinished, imperfect, but a real building. Those who want to turn it into ruins again, have no business in Georgia.

One person of my age introduced me into politics in the beginning of 90s, who was the example of patriotism for me. We took part in the process of the exchange of a war prisoner during the war in Abkhazia, and we then became friends. After that, at his initiative, I came to the Parliament. My first “baptism” in politics is his merit, and I will never forget this.

This person has never yielded throughout this period; he has not compromised even once with wicked forces, and did everything in order for all of us to turn Georgia into a better country.

When we thought about who would be the best candidate for the Batumi Deputy, I and Levan Varshalomidze, who together with you is the author of all of this and created this miracle, we remembered the person who I am talking to you about. At the same time, he is from Batumi; he was raised here and also graduated from school in Batumi.

This is my closest political colleague and friend, Giorgi Baramidze.    

I do not doubt at all that we will win, but it is not enough to just win, we have to win with excellence.

Thank you my friends for everything!