Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen it is a pleasure and a privilege to address the Millennium Development Goals, reviews summit this year. As a result of the millennium declaration in the past decade we have witnessed significant changes in the way we approach urgent development means. Two pillars of this new approach are the introduction of innovative financial mechanisms and reliance of the idea of local ownership. First about finances, I think unites is an excellent example of innovation. It could have become just another bureaucracy instead it has been a spectacular success and turns now as one of our most efficient tools in addressing the millennium challenges. Of course, we need more money. More money matters. But aid money will not deliver concrete results unless we pay more attention to this essential idea of local ownership. Now if we just understand local ownership as the way to give money to local bureaucrats and then allow them freedom to spend it, we've seen it in Georgia, we've seen it in many countries in the world. Just giving money to local officials, you know they gave money to them for housing, and they did wonderful villas in their own native countries or abroad. They gave them money for education, and they sent their kids to the best universities in the west or elsewhere without giving anything to their own people. They gave money for healthcare and hospitals remaining in measurable shape and people could not have any access. So that is what local ownership means in some countries, however in real terms the way local ownership should really be understood and this understanding in better cases is that this inspires and reinforces responsible governance. Millennium goals are not only the expresser of new global ethics or of an abstract economic financial philosophy. There are advance global goals and profound local in the political importance and impact. They demand the local stake holders to take political responsibility for the success. Countries simply cannot be stable without reducing poverty and improving the education and healthcare system. Nor can the broader world be stable and we all know it. It is not only about terrorists, but also trafficking, illegal immigration and the other score dissidents which no wall can protect us from. And we cannot make the walls and walls won't protect. A very smart government in the United States once said that if we build a fifty-foot wall the traffickers will build a fifty-one foot ladder. We must be smarter, faster, more innovative and above all more united to achieve our goals. Yet we face a dilemma when it comes to local ownership. A modern day version of chicken and egg problem, if aid against poverty requires responsible stable local actors, yet we need to reduce poverty in order to generate local political stability. How can we square this circle? It is not impossible but it demands clear vision and dedication. Without your indulgence therefore, I would like to share some of the experience in Georgia in the hope that they might help shed . . . . or how to achieve a local ownership. This is 2003 Georgia has made great strikes in fighting poverty, providing education, employment and shelter, improving maternal and childcare ,fighting HIV-AIDs and introducing sustainable environmental practices, which will hopefully help in form of work for others. Just as we hope to learn from you and so we can accelerate our effort to address the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Our experience has shown that first we need to develop this local ownership capacities is feeling and that is the essential word that is important about it, and this word is corruption. That is to say fighting, combating corruption. Fighting corruption might not be an official MDG list but all of us know that it is a prerequisite for any mini progress. It's all about corruption, when it goes to starting the program. When the millennium declaration was signed Georgia was a failed state crippled by decaying infrastructure and again systemic corruption. Millions of dollars of aid amounted to base next to nothing. The electricity was off for more than it was on. Pension payments really made their way to the elderly. Education opportunities were a lot based on bribe rather than merit. The vast majority of aid enriched those in power rather than benefit those in desperate need.
The 2003 free Rose Revolution dramatically changed the playing field. Fighting corruption was the first goal of my government and we implemented radical, legal, legislative and practical measures needed to confront corruption head on. It is no accident and in the following years Georgia started to make considerable progress towards addressing the MDGs, we have fought poverty and hunger above directly and by providing employment. Thus has included focusing on rapid economic development and job creation. Creating a favorable investment climate to attract FDI, reforming the pension system and expanding the social network pensioners and other social and vulnerable groups. In 2003 the poverty rate was more then 42 %, now it is less then 18. The extreme poverty, that is to say people living on less then 1.5$ a day was 18 %, now it is less then 6. And the progress we made is only an invitation to continue our work. Of course when we need to talk about 6%, this 6 % is too much. When we talk about 18% of other level poverty, 18 % is too much. Improving education another of the Millennium development goal, is an essential element in our economic vision and leading people out of that poverty. We expanded our universal primer education to 12 year program; we also introduced its new professional training schools for unable people to participate in economy. We introduced an ambitious English language education program, inviting 10 000 native speakers, speaking teachers to our schools in order to ensure our next generation will have a world of opportunities open to them. We are initialing a construction and functioning of new world class technologic University in the most wonderful city of the Black Sea- Batumi for the years to come and we are going to channel tremendous sums of money to make that University exist and work and create the highest world standards for our country and for our region. But here again building schools and putting money into program is not enough, we must improper state stake holders in the education system, making them few responsible in other sense of local ownership, which is why I am proud that Georgia is first among post- Soviet countries to introduce nation-wide self-governments or schools. This 2003 Georgia has also been working too massively reform our healthcare system, to enhance transparency, enhance insurance and pharmaceutical markets. We have also comprehensive HIV-AIDS program, including programs that target high risk groups treatment programs for those in need and education campaigns to slow the spread of this disease and lessen the social association with it. We have also tried address some of the secondary deseases often related to HIV, including tuberculoses and hypnotizes B. The establishment of tuberculoses groups in primary healthcare facilities resulted in daily direct observation of drug intake rising from 28% to almost 98%. On this issue as well as on our healthcare issues Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs is taking the lead in following programs. She also has to be my wife, and she also works actually not only as a director of foundation but also she is as a medical nurse, actual nurse in hospitals for delivery and also other patients. And that is also why I happened to know the subject so well.
Another focus of our work is maternal and child health including national -wide initiatives to improve family planning and more comprehensive care for accepting matters and then new borns. This is an area where the private sector has been integrally involved; we believe that this will help us provide sustainable long-term solutions for improvement across Georgia. Georgia was the first country to pilot a world health organization of course in modern evidence based of static and new native care, resulting in reduction of actions of 10% of all deliveries, reduction of episiotomy rates from 69% to 9.4% and then increase in partner at the end of deliveries from 0% to 91%.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are fortunate that our revolution was driven as much as my women reformers, as men .As a result Georgia has created many opportunities for women and inspired them to participate in economic and political life. We continue looking for ways to reinforce gender equality in the Georgian society and encourage women to seek elected options. In parliament we have more women now in the government at every level of public life. Finally, I would like to have a quick word on environmental sustainability. If there is in one that is one lesson of formally soviet republic should have from Soviet planning, is that economic growth should never come at the expanse of environment. In addressing Georgia's economic development we have sow to ensure that we do so in accordance with safe environmental practices. In fact the transformation of our energy sector was achieved primerly through investment in higher power generation, a clean safe and renewable source of energy. We do of course have one major problem concerning at the moment, but this relates to the situation in Russian occupied Abkhazia, where unfortunately the government of Georgia cannot rehabilitate and intervene to present the environment. We are greatly concerned about the environmental impact of the recourse trapping, occurring in Abkhazia in support of building constructions in 2014 Olympic Games in the bordering Russian resort of Sochi.
I would ask her partners to help us carefully monitor this situation because for MDG to be achieved we need to avoid black holes of governance and today 20% of Georgia consists of such holes. This is why I ask all of you to support the implementation of Georgia's propose engagement strategy with all the occupied territories, which offers a variety people to people programs even if we have more then around 500 000 refugees and IDPs form these territories and most of these territories are virtually empty from the people .Would you want any of our citizens there to be lead behind by development planning's, the implementation of the strategy will not be possible without the serious involvement of International community.
Ladies and gentlemen, Georgia's success in overcoming the pledge of underdevelopment who not have been the same without MDGs program. The MDGs make it easier to form partnerships that can address local fields more efficiently and effectively. These new mechanisms of international integration are a great tool for developing countries with responsible governments. In Georgia when we saw corruption destroying our nation, we were fortunate to still have food in our barns and the ability to organize ourselves to fight against those who believed that self-enrichment was right in leadership. But I am realistic that in many places people can worry about their own survival and that of their children living them little time to dream what a better future might look like, so it is vital today to speak for those and who cannot speak for themselves. Fighting corruption and creating the sense of local ownership are essential for coming last 5 years of the Millennium Development Program and beyond.
Thank you