Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili today visited the predominately ethnic Armenian-populated Javakheti region. Saakashvili opened a sports hall in Ninotsminda together with locals who had participated in the Patriot youth camp programme. The president also opened a dairy factory in the village of Spasovka, where in remarks to journalists he touted the region's potential in the tourism and agriculture sectors.
"There are three main factors in this region: one is stability and calm, the second is the permanent supply of electricity, which is very important, and the third is good roads. During my first term as president, none of the main roads in Javakheti - a region which had been forsaken and ignored by everyone and left destroyed and ruined - will remain in poor condition.
"Agriculture here has a unique potential which will be fully realized. There is a great potential for agriculture here and there is a great potential for tourism. There are lakes, mountains and forests here, there are various minerals and curative means here that are not found in Europe or anywhere else.
"But there was no road and there was no information. A very important thing has happened in this region over the past years which many people cannot yet see. This region has become completely integrated into Georgia. Now we are much more confident and this is the result [holds up a piece of cheese on a toothpick]. This is not just cheese, this is the combination of stability, roads and electricity," Saakashvili told journalists at the factory opening.
The president then travelled to Akhalkalaki, where he met students who had failed to pass university entrance exams because they do not know the Georgian language. Saakashvili promised that special stipends would be allotted for the region's prospective university students to encourage them to receive a higher education inside Georgia.
"I declare today that from August we will allot 100 presidential stipends for natives of Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda so that they can enrol in preparatory faculties in Tbilisi and later become students. We will give stipends to all of you. We will teach all of you for free so that you can later properly continue your studies in the departments you choose.
"Of course, I know that there are people who go to Minsk and Yerevan and other institutions of study in Kiev and in Russia. I propose - and I will facilitate this - that you stay in Georgia, in your own homeland. Study in your homeland. We will give you the best education in the region," Saakashvili said in Russian before a group of students in Akhalkalaki.
Translated by BBC Monitoring
Communications Office
of the President of Georgia