I welcome everyone.
This is indeed a very important day, as one of the biggest shopping centers in the eastern part of continental Europe, across the range of territory populated with hundreds of millions of people is being opened in Tbilisi.
And we, Georgians made it possible!
We did it with the help of investors.
That is why, everyone will say about Tbilisi and Georgia after this: Enough of boasting; we have nothing to show off. They should look at this building.
Indeed, it is a very important thing.
We are building cities that have no equivalent across Europe.
We are creating technologies that were inconceivable for you several years ago.
Georgia’s economy is developing faster than that of any other country in the region.
While the credit ratings of America, France, Italy, let alone Greece and many other countries are being downgraded, our credit rating, the credit rating of Georgia is being upgraded, i.e. the investment climate in Georgia is improving.
Our people are still very poor, our people still need employment, but the only way towards a better future, employment, improvement of situations, increasing the income of every family runs through investments, credit ratings, stability, reforms, a non-corrupt and non-criminal environment and through all we, together are proud of in terms of changes and progress as the result of the Rose Revolution and its aftermath.
There are statements by the NATO Secretary General and quotes from the UN Children’s Fund Report running on TV these days.
This is not what we would like to write and say.
We often argued with the international organizations and told them: you do not see well enough, you do not appreciate well enough… and they are more critical today than I would like them to be, but they also have seen and appreciated our results. Our people are not blind and they appreciate it.
It is just that there are politicians, “hardly journalists”, these people who do not want to see anything and do not want for their life to change for the better.
Our people create all of this; our people see progress and demand more.
This center is not only an important progress for Tbilisi. The world’s top brands will come here and the shops will actually open in February-March. The building is already finished. There will be two 30-floor skyscrapers next to it.
But this also means that we are becoming a trade and economic centre in the region. The same, as Singapore is in its region; as Dubai is for its region. Georgia will become exactly like this very soon for the countries of the Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia, Southern Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The investments of such an amount of money here is the indicator that investors see the non-corrupt and good investment climate of Georgia. They believe that many tourists will come here and most importantly that Georgians will become rich and have more money for shopping.
That is why this is a very significant step forward for us.
The second item that we came together with Gigi Ugulava and gathered here for is that we are announcing the building of a new district in Tbilisi.
We are opening a renovated Aghmashenebli Avenue today.
In no period of Georgian history, has there been so much work and reconstruction conducted in Tbilisi as in the past 5 years, the period from 2005-6 to 2011.
We all did it together.
No matter who says what, this is the greatest period of reconstruction for Georgia since the day, epoch, century of the country’s existence.
We are announcing a new, much more ambitious project today – this is the project of building a new district in Tbilisi “New Tbilisi” across several hundreds of hectares in Digomi, the so called Chalebi.
We have an old Tbilisi, which found a new life from the new program initiated by the city hall of Tbilisi – “New life of Old Tbilisi”.
It is true that we still have work to do, but old Tbilisi is surely gaining a new life.
We are creating a “New Tbilisi” today for a better future for Tbilisi.
This is happening not because we want to enlarge Tbilisi; its enlargement is now our end goal, but rather to reach the European average of 30 square meters per resident. The space for residence per person today is 15 square meters in Tbilisi.
We need to enlarge – every single Georgian family needs to enlarge. Every family should have an opportunity to buy a new apartment, to move to another building. We have to raise our children in a new environment.
That is why we will create new infrastructure here, bring in the subway, build roads to here, fortify the banks of the Kura (Kura here is the cleanest in Tbilisi).
To say in short, this is indeed a historic moment for Tbilisi – there is a new district being created in Tbilisi.
There was a time when new districts were created in Saburtalo, Vake, Gldani, Varketili and Vazisubani. This will be more extensive than any district created so far in any other epoch.
The construction of this district will start in 2011; it will continue and have its final shape not in 10 or 20 years, but according to our modernization project, in 2015. The basic contours of this project, of the new district, will be completed by this period.
Thus, we are not speaking about the distant future, but about the tomorrow for Tbilisi.
Our program was always to be proud of our city, our Tbilisi. Personally for me, the main motivation from childhood has been the sense of pride – no matter where I went, I was always glad to come back, I had a strong sense that our city was the best, special, more pretty and warm.
This feeling is probably familiar to many of you.
Many have lost the feeling of this during the 90s. We had to switch from propane heaters to the “Turbos” and electric “generators”, we had to live in an environment where there were no roads, no electricity and criminality was common.
The streets of Tbilisi were occupied by dirty, criminal elements who would insult anyone, stab, rape and kill them – our city had been engulfed by lawlessness and un-accountability.
With the Rose Revolutions everything had been reversed. The Rose Revolution brought back electricity to Tbilisi, brought the greatest order in terms of the fight against criminals for the first time in its history.
The Rose Revolution created not only the anticipation of growth of perspective, reconstruction, but a reality to our life.
All of these serve one goal – for us to overcome unemployment once and for all, which is a big problem for our city and for it to steadily drop below 10 percent, which we plan to achieve by 2015.
This serves every resident of Tbilisi, every child to have an opportunity to get a good education; every resident of Tbilisi to have insurance and an opportunity for treatment in high quality hospitals and a lot is being done for this during the last years.
This means to have good roads everywhere in Tbilisi, every district to be more illuminated than Paris, London, New-York and Kuala-Lumpur.
This means for Tbilisi to have such trade centers so that we will not want to go anywhere – neither to America, Asia or Dubai nor anywhere else. Everything should be available here.
This is truly something what we have seen in Istanbul, Dubai, America – New York. I have not seen shopping malls this big practically anywhere – that there are none in Europe, I have already said.
Many might have said today that they do not like some things, e.g. the shape or some building, but is it not better to argue with us about this, than focus on a helplessness and lack of perspective?
Lots of things are being done and many do not like it. But did we like it better when nothing was being done?
It is better to criticize us about how we are doing things than for all of us to give up because nothing being done.
It was like this for years, decades and centuries in the history of Georgia.
Now it is time to do things.
It is always possible to do something better and I admit this from the first day, but this is the period of reconstruction that we all should be proud of.
Thus, my friends, I am not sure what the reason is for this – the fact that the city has a directly elected Mayor or the climate has changed towards the better, but there is a “scent” of construction in the air.
These are not our fairytales.
When we were talking about Batumi, everyone called me fancier, but some of you, perhaps have been to Batumi. This city will have 2-3 more skyscrapers by summer.
And what you are looking at right now will be completed by 2015. We will all witness this and everyone will love it.
I would like to once again congratulate you on the Giorgoba and today’s holiday.