Greetings to my dear residents of Gurjaani!
Certainly the opening of this hospital will not solve all problems and we know that problems are much greater than the pace of their solution.
I am the most impatient person on earth and I want to do everything fast, but who would have imagined even two years ago that things would go this fast…
To tell the truth, when I was campaigning for the second time, I would come here and ask for your support, I have promised you that before my second presidential term would expire, we would have hospitals like those in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany; likewise, we would build schools like those that are in Korea, Japan and all other leading European countries.
I was saying it, as I truly believed we could do everything, but at the same time we worried that it may take much longer, an enormous work, but still we would do it.
Now, I would like to tell you: just as this hospital is being built, like the 150 hospitals in Georgia, which will be followed by 5-6 huge centers in Tbilisi, we will have one of the best healthcare systems across Europe - not somewhere far from here, but in our region, in our village, in our small city, a few kilometers away from our home.
Of course, just a hospital is not everything; of course the doctors need training and of course, much better qualification is needed.
These people are very determined, they are always trying to improve, but when a doctor comes in here, there already is a different atmosphere and it sets different requirements on them.
Zurab Chiaberashvili said it right and I know it as well, that not everyone has an insurance policy yet. Everyone who needs treatment has to have insurance, as the old situation has to change. We had to go to the Tbilisi Hospital for even a simple thing before; we would spend a night and were left at the mercy of fate. Doctors, nurses, assistants would look to our pockets, the surgeons would not start surgeries until you would pay them; if something had happened to you in the street, the ambulance would not come either if you were not able to tell them in advance that you had a policy.
This is the kind of injustice we lived in and that is why for me this is the very idea of equality.
Some are irritated the most by the fact that today it is accessible for every working person in Georgia.
Only the few had the best living, healthcare and education conditions before, everyone else was “outside” of the game.
That is why they are trying to get back in authority.
The first slogan they have voiced is that a person that has no money has no place in politics. They are irritated by the fact that ministers and chiefs of police are not extorting money from the population.
They are also irritated by the idea that if you are in a public service, you put the interests of the people above your own.
They are irritated by the fact that ordinary citizens are asked how things should be solved.
There was only one hospital like this in Tbilisi before and to go there was almost impossible. It is guaranteed for the residents of Gurjaani today, it is also possible to come from Tbilisi and get treatment here.
We will buy even better equipment, train the doctors better, and introduce new technologies as well.
We should be able to cure all diseases here.
We will do everything else just like this.
We stopped by the Gurjaani Justice House on the way here and I remembered that one had to go to Tbilisi for any kind of document and sometimes had to wait for it for months.
I do not blame those women either, who sat in old “passports desks”, in dark rooms looking out to others pockets. What could they do? They had no income whatsoever.
There is an amazing Justice House being built here now, where the service personnel will only think about how to please and make your life easier.
This is what the function of the state is today, and this is precisely what we are trying to preserve in Georgia.
There are hospitals being opened all over this year; there will be no schools in Georgia next year, before my presidential term expires, which, so to speak, will be less than those in America or France.
We have already received American teachers everywhere, we have computers everywhere, and it will all be entirely computerized by next year; there will be new, the best class rooms everywhere, we will have trained teachers everywhere.
The youth will have a chance to receive a truly international education, so that they are open to all opportunities in life.
You perhaps know that we are building an enormous sports center here, which is very important for them. It will be much better than the complex built during the communist times, which was abandoned afterwards.
Now everyone, including those from Tbilisi, will be able to come to Gurjaani for swimming and tanning.
Likewise, we are developing the Akhtala Resort, which has a huge potential.
When we talk about the revival of Kakheti, first of all, it is about the creation of jobs.
What creates jobs? This is agriculture.
We will have a better vintage this year than we have ever had. We have imported many tractors this spring, but we will fully equip the agricultural sector with tractors by fall. The agro-technique is being done everywhere; there should not be a single hectare of land left without cultivation in Georgia.
Spring was late this year and I was little nervous, but just when it got warm, the cultivation of land began; people had waited for the weather too in order to start the tractors and cultivate the land.
We are assisting them in this as well.
We have to learn to cultivate the land a second time, in fall as well.
When we talk about employment, we should bear in mind that training is necessary. For this we are creating technical institutes.
Students and pedagogues of the Kachreti technical institute have just met us now.
The Kachreti technical institute is the best one and do you know why? Because, it was built with love; because every pedagogue is doing their job heartily, including the director, who has 40 years of experience.
There are the best people living here.
I would like you to know that there are many problems, but the water issue is being solved in every village, the village program is underway all over, the works are being done everywhere. …
They show it on TV that a construction site was opened somewhere, Donald Trump has arrived somewhere and a 60 story building is being constructed.
All of this is being done so that Georgia has more income and this will have a continuation, including in Gurjaani.
All of this is being done not for the government to speak to the population with figures and indicators and say how much our economy will grow percentagewise, but how much more income will each specific family have in percentages; how many members will be employed; how much will their salary increase; how accessible will the healthcare be for them; how much better schools their children will go to; how much better roads will they travel on not only on central roads, but in their own village, micro district and there, where they live.
This is what the determinant of success is for me and not if the whole world hails Georgia.
There are lots of investors coming to Georgia already and main thing that everyone recognizes is that the Georgian government has managed what none of its neighbors and European countries have – to defeat corruption. This is a very significant achievement.
How many leaders can come out in the world in front of such a successful, respected and thoughtful society and say that he had defeated corruption?
This is the main merit of our authority, which we have to preserve at any cost.
People, who choked us for years, robbed us, humiliated and had us squeezed into the corner, are now trying to revert the situation by any and all means, but the main meter is not the money, tricks, or the threat of the enemy, but our people.
All the doors will be opened for Georgia, they will accept us everywhere and everyone will embrace us, when Georgia will become a stable, successful country of happy people.
Precisely this is the final measure of our victory.
Thus, my dears, I thank you very much for coming here.
The fact that people come to these meetings to meet us and they get up early in the morning for this, is the greatest reward for me personally and for my government and is the greatest incentive to work for 24 hours and not to sleep even at night.
With your permission, I will take a look around the hospital now and continue work in order for this hospital to become the beginning of a great resurgence and prosperity for Gurjaani.
Thank you…