POLAND

SEPTEMBER 7th, 2011





Good morning,



I am really delighted to address you today.



And not only because it gives me for less than 1hour the impression to remain a "young leader" myself...



I am delighted because the immense challenges and the huge opportunities we are facing in these troubled but exciting times require an energy and a creativity that your generation has more than any other.



I am looking forward to our dialog and will therefore try to avoid a 5 hours speech.



My dear friends,

Major historical events - good or bad - almost always take us by surprise.

They require from us all this capacity of radical "astonishment" that Aristotle was putting at the beginning of philosophy - an ability to abandon our usual schemes. To become young again, free of prejudices and open to new ways of reasoning, new solutions.

Nobody predicted or planned the revolutions that swept across Eastern and Central Europe in 1989, or, a bit further on the East, the colored revolutions that came 15 years later.

Now again, History has caught all of us by surprise. For the better and the worse.

For the worse: nobody had anticipated the depth of the crisis that is now threatening the European and the world economy.

For the better: nobody either had predicted the wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East, the tectonic changes operating now in the Arab world and beyond.

I did not come here, of course, with ready answers to the questions raised by these 2 major challenges of today's world.

I came here to explore some questions with you, to share some lessons drawn from Georgia's recent transformation, and to deliver a message of hope.

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As most of you know, seven years ago, Georgia was basically a failed state.

An entrenched bureaucracy was killing any initiative in a society dominated by Soviet legacy and an economy shackled by corruption.

As you may know as well, a peaceful, popular revolution brought to power a young team of reformists that I happened to lead.

The situation in Georgia was so catastrophic that we had to build our state almost from scratch.

Yet, in many ways, this was a blessing more than a curse.

We knew that half-steps or overly cautious measures would be mere drops in the ocean and we opted for a radical course that would transform our old nation but young independent state into a regional laboratory for reforms.

Who were "we" at that time?

Nothing more than a group of young men and women from student organizations, opposition parties, and civil society groups.

From one day to the next we were in charge of a fragile country-in a hostile geopolitical environment, with an increasingly revisionist Russian Federation at our door.

Slogans, roses, flags, and policy papers-the tools we used as opposition and civil society leaders-would no longer suffice.

What could we do? Were we just going to replace the old generation with a new one to basically do the same things over and over?

Or were we going to stay true to our dreams and to the dreams of all the people who bravely came into the streets to overthrow the previous regime?

We took the risk of launching a quick, radical, and comprehensive reform process.

We were not constrained by dogma or the deadweight of bureaucracies and powerful interest groups.

Of course we did not succeed in everything-we had significant shortcomings and we made many mistakes.

But, as the father of European cosmopolitism-Emmanuel Kant-wrote more than 200 years ago: "You cannot be ready to be free until you are free."

What Kant meant is that there is no book to teach you in advance how to govern or even behave in freedom, that you can only learn this from your own successes and failures.

He also meant that the pursuit of freedom brings uncertainty and risk-but that such a risk should be seized if you want to be an actor in your own life and in your nation's destiny.

Kant was right. In Georgia, we found no handbook to guide us. And there will be no operating manual for our Arab friends, either.

But there were experiences, successes, and failures that we could study and that we did study, starting with the Polish experience in the last 20 years.

And we are becoming, in turn, a case for study.

Today, regional policy or opinion makers-including some Russians, as surprising as that might sound-come to Georgia in search of ideas on new ways to address old problems.

Most people who visit Georgia for the first time are surprised by the age of our ministers and senior government officials. We are, in fact, a nation run by 30-year-olds.

This is both the result and the main driver of what The Economist recently characterized as Georgia's "mental revolution."

Georgians have stopped thinking of their country as a post-Soviet state.

This mental revolution goes far beyond the leaders and parties that led the Rose Revolution-far beyond any leadership.



Our first comprehensive reform was the complete transformation of our law enforcement bodies. We started by firing our entire traffic police force.

Georgians lived for three months without traffic police-and amazingly, during this very period, crime rates went down by 70%. Why?

Not only because police was responsible for most of the crimes, but also because people felt that they were part of a common adventure, that they had a stake that they were living this very specific moment of one nation's history, when everything seems possible, when values become the basis of politics, when you have the feeling of inventing your own future.

This feeling is the true motor of History.

Thanks to radical changes in our police and in all our other bureaucratic structures-and thanks to this widespread feeling among people that they owned these transformations-we have made greater progress on Transparency International's Corruption Index since 2003 than any other state in the world.

We have built a highly favorable investment climate based on three key principles: minimal regulation, low taxes, and, as I just mentioned, strong anti-corruption enforcement.

Georgia is a small nation, remote from commercial centers and financial capitals, located in a shaky geopolitical environment-to put it mildly.

Our only chance of attracting investors was to become a regional haven.

We are now ranked as one of the easiest places in the world to do business, according to the World Bank: 12th in the world and first in Central and Eastern Europe.

Before the invasion of 2008 and the world crisis, we had consistent double-digit growth. And a testament to the depth and soundness of our economic reforms is that, despite a contraction in 2009, our FDI-driven economy has proved resilient in the face of both an invasion and the global economic crisis. We had 6.5% growth in 2010 and expect 6% in 2011.

There is still a lot to be done, obviously, and we are more committed than ever to pursuing our path of reforms, to keep building a democracy at gunpoint.

............

Our model is neither perfect nor necessarily transferable to Arab nations or even other countries of our region, but everybody can find in our experience a general message of hope: radical changes are possible.

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I realize that I spoke already too long. But allow me just to deliver a similar message of hope when it comes to the economic difficulties that Europe is facing now.

Let me reiterate my firm conviction that the basis on which the Western world has built its successes - liberal democracy and free market - are more than ever the best receipts for its future development.

Let me express my resolute trust in the European integration, in the fact that - led by renewed countries like Poland - Europe will emerge stronger, more united and more coordinated from this crisis.

ANECDOTE ABOUT POLISH STUDENTS IN STRASBOURG in the 90's. POOR AMONG THE POORS. AND NOW: FLOURISHING YOUTH OF A LEADING EUROPEAN NATION.

Dear friends, Georgia is not yet part of the EU obviously, but we are fully aware that our well-being depends on Europe's recovery, that our security depends on Europe's commitment to international law and a stronger foreign policy, that we are already in the same boat, you and us.

In few weeks, the Eastern Partnership Summit of Warsaw will reinforce the solidarity between EU and its Eastern Neighborhood.

I will work with the Polish leadership so that this summit becomes an opportunity to advance towards this common dream: A Europe Whole and Free.

Thank you.



First question by a student: I know that during the last 3-4 years Georgia has been referred to as the world's number one reformer country by the World Bank rating of "doing business" and other publications. You've talked about solving problems and replacing the old cadres with those who have a new vision. But do you think that this is enough to create a robust economy? What tools are you using to manage people who are creating the new system?

The second question is regarding Russia. Do you have a new strategy in terms renewing and reestablishing relations with Russia? If you do, what is your plan? If you don't, why not?

Mikheil Saakashvili: I will give you one example regarding bureaucracy. We have new customs offices and storage terminals where only 7 minutes is required to inspect the cargo. Of course sometimes there is cargo that does not need to be inspected thoroughly, but if the customs officer takes more than one hour in the process, he/she will be fired. Another development is that customs offices are modern glass buildings.

A few months ago I showed a customs terminal to one of the foreign leaders visiting Georgia. I told him that if cargo inspection takes more than one hour the customs officer is fired. He laughed and said: "Where do you find the customs officers who agree to work in such conditions?"

But let me tell you - they are not professional customs officers, they don't have to be because we have replaced the old system with new technologies. Computers take care of work; the new custom officers just greet clients with a smile and talk to them in English or other languages. Work is administered quickly. There are also other factors, like higher salaries and as a symbol of transparency in our government; every new building is being constructed out of glass. Police buildings, court houses and palaces of justice are transparent. 80% of the work I was doing years ago as a private attorney is done by computers now. Every person can visit a palace of justice and receive services in the least amount of time.

Regarding Russia... In the beginning people said that Georgia would collapse without Russia. 6 years ago we imported 90% of our gas and electricity from Russia, but now we are exporting electricity to Russia. 75 % of our production went to the Russian market. As you know, they set an embargo, which influenced us less than expected because we are no longer dependent on the Russian market. The quality of our production has increased. People started thinking about taking a different road. Not only has our economy left the sphere of Russian influence but unlike the current leaders of Russian, we have been freed from the cruel Soviet mentality. The thinking of people has changed in Georgia. We have invited teachers from America, Britain and Australia in order to learn the English language. Of course we don't want to be anyone's enemy, especially of a large neighbor, but we have proven that compared to other Post-Soviet countries Georgia is farther from the sphere of Russian influence. This gap is expanding and Georgia is gradually becoming more successful. Escape from the sphere of influence and you will immediately discover that you can survive and thrive. Our condition is simple: Russian tanks must leave and Russians should come here as tourists. They are protecting the Abkhazian coast, which is divided into two parts. We have built the first part and invested in it. The second part is deserted by all the population, but the large Russian Empire is protecting it from us with tanks. Such politics have no future and will soon collapse. The collapse will be less painful if they become modernized and standard. Otherwise it will be very painful and you will remember my words.

I met Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg and seriously told him that we would build a monument of him, as the creator of the modern Georgian economy. He assumed that he deserved it. I am saying the same thing today, but I don't think the idea of building a monument of Putin is popular in Georgia. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. The same is happening in terms of Georgian economy and politics.