The President of Georgia awarded Alexander Lomaia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations with St Georges Order of Victory for his contributions in the constructions of Georgian state, for his productive diplomatic and state activities.

The President of Georgia MikheilSaakashvili

We are not only awarding a very important Georgian public figure, but the oldest Georgian diplomat from those who are here now.

Alexander Lomaia was the first Georgian Ambassador after we gained the independence. He is a public figure with great working experience and achievements.

Besides the fact that Alexander Lomaia is one of the founders of the Georgian reformative space that is well known all around the world already and that has changed our lives irreversibly for better.

I would like to speak specially about the period from his career, when he was the Minister of Education - he was a brilliant minister, because the majority of reforms were carried out exactly in that period. Among them are united national exams that are going on in Georgia at present. These changes put old corrupted system upside down and simply destroyed it. Several hundred thousand people were fed by this system and it killed the hope of our young generation to achieve success with hard work and studying in a fair way. The biggest corruption was not in police here, (however police was very much corrupt), not in state apparatus in general, but exactly in educational system. Many Georgian citizens had to leave our country because of this reason.

Alexander Lomaia irreversibly changed existing situation in this system.

This is a noble action indeed and it is great honor for me to award himwith St George's Order of Victory for his special contributions towardsGeorgia'spresent and future.

Alexander Lomaia, Permanent Representative to the United Nations

It is very hard to imagine greater honor than serving Georgia, independent motherland and to be awarded with highest state award for this greatest honor.

I could never even dream about it.

People devide their lives in certain periods. After the Rose Revolution this period had started for me in a school courtyard of a small village in Adjara, where 11 saplings were planted. Exactly the same number of students got enlisted in our most prestigious universities from that small village.

This period now continues in the Organization of United Nations where Georgian mission tries not to give up any single diplomatic fight with our evil wishers.

Before that was August 2008, Gori and I witnessed civil devotion of hundreds of our medics, doctors, nurses, drivers, fire fighters, representatives of state structures, ecclesiastics and ordinary citizens.

Mr. President, if anything was achieved in these years, these hundreds of honest and professional people made it possible and I had an honor to work with these people.

Mr. President thank you very much for this much trust, for continuous support and for giving me a chance to do what I have considered to be the greatest honor - serving Georgia.

And finally I want to express my gratitude to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Mr. GrigolVashadze and to all my colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that implement highest standards of professionalism and citizenship with their hard work on the daily bases.

Thank you very much!