Welcome, my dear ones!
I do not remember so many of us gathering here on the day of Shuamtoba. As a rule, many people celebrate this day, but there is a particularly great number of people here this year.
Ajara is better-off than ever this year.
Ajara, which we inherited 8 years ago, was an insulted region that had been under poverty and deprivation, but with very proud, dignified and hard working people.
Today’s Ajara is an object of admiration not only for the rest of Georgia, or for the former Soviet Union, but for the Europeans and Americans, and we should be proud of the fact that we have created one of the world’s best regions.
My friends, I have not come here today with empty hands.
Each year I bring stuff here, but today I would like to tell you that we began construction works here few days ago, and this year is the last Shuamtoba that we will come up here on a bad road.
We have already begun the construction of the connecting road of a Goderdzi Pass and Goderdzi, which means that this place will no longer be a gridlock.
The second thing we have done and of which I am stunned – on my way here I stopped by Danisparauli, where the construction of the largest, of most interesting ski resort of Georgia began several days ago.
Ajara will have a new ski resort, while this means that there will no longer be poverty here. There will be tourists here, there will be lanes, hotels and there will no longer be poverty, misery and shortages here.
It has been a long time I have promised you, but we have signed the contract with the French just recently, and there will be a ski resort built here at a pace at which nowhere else in the world has been built.
Levan Varshalomidze and those people, who together with you are creating the new Ajara today, will guarantee this.
There are people gathered here from Shuakhevi, Khulo, and Keda today. You have seen the new hospitals, which we have opened in Chakvi, Keda, Shuakhevi…There will be a very good doctor in every village.
We have the best clinics in Ajara and what we will also accomplish is that, if the majority of the population has insurance today, there will not be a single resident of Ajara who will be left without a full package of medical insurance in the nearest period.
Everyone should have accessibility to these hospitals and a feeling of being protected, so that people are healthy and happy here.
Some politicians are now trying to discredit our reconstruction and shamelessly state as if the old times were better, they state as well that new resorts distort the image of mountains; as if the new roads are an insult to our authenticity.
We would like to tell those people who say that we need to restore the old corrupt officials, who say that we need to restore the old way of life, who tell us that we need to get back under the old imperial control, as they felt more comfortable then – we no longer have a way to go back.
Georgia and Ajara will only move forward, towards a better future, just as we all have set it.
The situation is very simple, no matter who says what, what positions they express…I noticed one politician the other day, who said: The government has built a lot, but they have to go now, as it is our time now.
We will not let anyone destroy the country we have built!
It might be true that it is difficult to destroy everything, but they are such masters of destruction, that if we give them our 50 floor skyscrapers, perhaps, they will not leave anything from them either in a couple of months.
We have new resorts, new schools, new universities, new hospitals, and new ambulatories to be built.
We have to provide our children with the best education.
We have to build good roads leading to every gorge.
Every person should have social and medical insurance.
Everyone should be able to send their children to the best Georgian and foreign universities.
Everyone should have an opportunity to start their own business and everyone will have an opportunity to open a new business, create employment for themselves and for other people.
This is what our policy and our position is about. No one will take us off this course and no one will ever take this place to the darkness, where there are no roads, no prospects, where there is corruption, criminals and slavery.
We have freed ourselves, and there is nothing better than freedom in this world.
My friends, there are the best people living here.
I would like to tell you that we are a government that looks at people not from the top-down, but conversely, looks from the bottom-up, as our objective is to be your faithful servants, your guides, to share your worries and create a better county, a better Georgia for you and together with you. This will surely be like this and our children will be much happier.
Nothing will prevent our further victory and we will surely make it to peace. I am convinced of this!
And in the end, I would like to tell you that the Government of Georgia has never been so strong throughout our entire history. Yet, our government is strong only due to the fact that our people are very strong.
People, who went through the energy embargo, all kinds of provocations, the economic embargo, and the war after all, we make it through everything.
The children of this part of Georgia have fallen in the fight with our conqueror, in order for us to be free!
They fell on the battlefield, and we will build new Ajara, a new Georgia precisely on their behalf.
This is our road and we will surely reach our set goal, as we have people who are strong with the ability to create and build, who are not to be bribed and fooled, as our conqueror believes they are.
Our people have what they do not have. They might have lots of money, an army, territory, but we have dignity, conviction in ourselves and righteousness. We do shoulder each other and believe in our future.
Thank you.