President Saakashvili visited the border between Adjara and Guria to attend a ceremony to mark the start of work on the construction of the largest leisure centre in Georgia, Tsitsinatela. The complex will cover 14 hectares and the first stage of construction will be completed by 1 August. The complex will be finally completed by the next summer season.
Welcome, everybody. I would like to welcome the heads of the local government, the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and members of the government.
Today is an important day for us. Two years ago in March, on this spot, during the night, or more precisely early in the morning, we tried to enter Adjara over the Choloki bridge. We were blocked about where that building is being built by several hundred people armed to the teeth. The Choloki bridge had been heavily mined. Just a few days ago they found more explosives left by [then Adjarian leader] Aslan Abashidze and his foreign advisers under another bridge nearby. It is good that they did not explode. Two years ago we could not have imagined how this place would begin to change.
I would like to tell you that we do not just mean the construction of this park. We are starting major, unprecedented construction projects on a very tight timescale along the Black Sea coast in Adjara and now in Guria.
In these coming days and weeks the construction of up to 30 new, European-standard tourist hotels will begin in Adjara. Several will be built in Guria.
Last year saw unprecedented road construction work. We built the first new tunnel for decades. We also intend to continue building roads this year. The Ozurgeti-Kobuleti road will be rebuilt to European standards this year. That is very important for the Guria region. The Meria road and the Sarpi-Batumi road will be repaired to modern standards. We will continue building a new tunnel and it should be finished by the end of the year.
We will complete roads in Adjara's highland region and we are working on roads linking villages in Guria. We are reinforcing coastal defences in Guria and Adjara.
This year was the first for many years in which most of Guria and Adjara did not have electricity problems. This, of course, did not fall from the sky. This was the result of very hard work.
You know that throughout Georgia educational institutions are being built. Last year several new schools were built in Adjara and Guria. However, I want everything new that we build - schools, roads and everything else - to be of a completely different standard and quality. I do not want this to be a repeat of Soviet standards.
A short time ago we even missed the quality of what was built in the Soviet Union. Everything new that it is to be built or renovated - and this year 17 new schools will be built in Adjara and several built or renovated in Guria - should be done to European standards. Every new building should be on a European level. We are in the 21st century and we are a European country. We should have buildings of which we are proud, not embarrassed when we send our children there. We will do that together.
We started an experiment last year. The Adjarian government provided all schoolchildren in Batumi with school uniforms. This year, free school uniforms will be provided to all schoolchildren, from year one to six, throughout Adjara. I would like to say that we support this programme. [Tbilisi mayor] Gigi Ugulava is doing the same in Tbilisi. We also hope to provide free beautiful school uniforms to children in the district centres of Lanchkhuti, Ozurgeti and Chokhatauri. Children should be happy to wear them. These uniforms should be different from the old-fashioned uniforms we remember from our childhoods. We should have good-quality modern uniforms, just as in Europe and other normal countries. We will do this together.
Several good outpatient clinics are being built here. It is very important for us to build a decent, modern health care system everybody can afford to use. No-one should be denied medical treatment because of money problems.
I would also like to tell you that on 6 May we will switch on [street lights on] the entire highway. I want the whole of Georgia to know that this year Adjara and Georgia's Black Sea coast will be beautiful as never before. The entire highway, from Choloki to Batumi and Sarpi, will have newly installed lights. There will be no more dark roads, no more dangerous bends, no more dangerous potholes. Come and have a good time here, spend money here, because this money will benefit local people.
Numerous new cafes and catering facilities are being built this year. You know that last year a new, modern park opened in Borjomi, which was the trailblazer. We are continuing to make improvements to the park. By the way, my friend here, who is from Kobuleti, has visited the Borjomi park several times together with his classmates, I believe.
Today, here at the Choloki [river], we are opening the construction of a park that will be one of the most modern parks in the former Soviet Union. This involves huge investment. This will not just be an entertainment and recreation site. This park will create job opportunities. Like a magnet, it will attract more facilities around it. Like a magnet, it will attract tourists.
Tens of thousands of tourists from Armenia and other countries have already been here [in Adjara]. By the end of this year, the construction of a new European-style airport will be completed in Batumi. It will meet all modern European standards. There will be a completely new runway that any type of aircraft can use. It will be even better than the Tbilisi airport runway. This is being done to attract more tourists.
What does more tourists mean? It means that people in Natanebi [village in the Guria province] will be able to sell their produce. I have many friends in this village. It is a great village with great traditions of farming. People here will have more income, which will enable them to give their children a better education. Education is the main thing for us here. We must understand that the sale of our agricultural produce and the development of tourism is the future of Georgia.
For the first time in the post-Soviet period, several large food processing enterprises are opening in Adjara this summer. Tens of millions of dollars' worth of investment is being made for the benefit of people in Guria and Adjara. Agricultural produce from the rest of Georgia will also be processed here. This means jobs and new opportunities for our families living here.
I cannot list everything that is being done. When one or two enterprises were being built, it was always easy to attend their opening. Aslan Abashidze opened just one one-and-a-half storey kindergarten which has never seen any children. Some people who are currently criticizing us in Tbilisi visited it 40 times and heaped praise on Aslan Abashidze a hundred times for building that one-storey shack.
In Adjara's highland region alone we are building 15 completely new schools this year. In Kobuleti, as I promised, I will build one of the most beautiful and modern schools in the region. It will be a school that meets European standards. We will work as quickly as possible and, hopefully, children will be able to use it by the end of the year. A similar European-standard school is being built in Khelvachauri. More such schools are being built in Guria. Naturally, I will not be able to attend the opening of each of these schools, although I would really like to.
It must be said though that, of course, progress is a gradual process. We need to work harder, be more patient and spill more sweat in order finally to help our country emerge from the terrible state it found itself in.
There was a swamp here and this still is a swamp. On 1 July, or let's hope in the middle of July at the latest, we will open a park here we will not be ashamed of. We will not be embarrassed to bring the President of America here or especially tourists from neighbouring countries. They will go back and tell everyone how much the Georgians have improved. Who thought this would happen?
We will be proud of that because I am proud of everything that is being done in Georgia because Georgia is a great country and great people live here. It is a better country than others, better than most other countries in the world in all respects. We must really be very untalented not to take advantage of that, but we are very talented, so we will take full advantage. So, let's start construction work and in three months - [addresses head of the Adjarian government Levan Varshalomidze and Guria governor Aleko Tsintsadze] Varshalomidze and governor, make sure you don't make me angry. May, June, July - and then I will come here for a walk together with the population of Georgia.
This translation is published with permission from BBC Monitoring, Reading UK
Communications Office
of the President of Georgia