The Meeting of the Government of Georgia was held on 1 February 2008. The agenda of the Meeting consisted of 17 items.
At the commencement of the Meeting, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili greeted the audience. He congratulated the new composition of the Government of Georgia on gaining the Parliament's approval, stating that it was an advance for the Government of Georgia to perform well. Then the President of Georgia said: the Government of Georgia has been renewed substantially based on such criteria as professionalism and experience, not friendship, political affiliation or any other sign. The goal of the Government is to press ahead with the positive trends that we have seen unfolding in recent years in Georgia and to prevent the negative trends, which still hold out in our country.
We are committed to launching Georgia Without Poverty Plan and seen the first results within 50 days. We are not waiting for you to curb poverty within this period. That would be an unrealistic pledge. But we must let people and the society see that within this period we can take first real steps towards beating poverty. This must be done in many areas. For instance, making preparations for agrarian works this spring, as agriculture is the cornerstone of our Government Program. We must make preparations this spring to gather harvest. This means that we must extend help by providing fuel to some, and ?? and other fertilizers to others. We must run a new system of the station of machinery and tractors and strengthen it stage by stage. Besides, there are such infrastructure projects as village gasification, building roads in villages, building outpatient clinics, and providing village doctors, etc. The accomplishment of these objectives calls for daily work.
This spring we must lay a foundation for increasing pensions right from this spring. This is a very important objective. It is goods news that in December and January the Ministry of Finance fulfilled the tax collection plan exceedingly well. This means that despite the hard election period and all-out attempts to destabilize the situation in Georgia, the state machine is operating smoothly and the trend must be maintained. We must put these words basically towards increasing social allowances, particularly pensions. We must continue other social projects as well.
At the same time, continued the President of Georgia, I'd like to ask the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs to necessarily revise the lists of our vulnerable citizens. I visit rural areas very often and know that the lists fail to fully reflect the vulnerable people. We do not have much money but whatever we have we must put them towards assisting the most vulnerable part of our society.
Often, we used to be frequently criticized for making frequent changes in the composition of the Government. I'd like to thank all the members of the previous Government. We did not have any serious reprimand or personal problem with anyone but renewal is permanently necessary. I want everyone to realize that these changes had to be made frequently because the results of the Government's performance were not what we had expected. The Government, the ministers must be result-oriented. If there is a positive result, you will continue work, if not, no one can maintain a post and no friendship, relationship or any other factor can help.
We also would like to have the Government staffed with independent persons. There is no ultimate truth in public administration, particularly with the President or Prime Minister. I appreciate the Government members who can argue for their own opinions and take independent positions, of course, when such an independent position is based on patriotism, expertise and in-depth analysis. In this respect, we'll have to work much more. We need the Government that discusses issues with us, that may agree or disagree with us, that and can argue for and validate its positions, but approaches the issues within the best interests of the matter, and not take a tolerant approach. I think that it is such people that now have come to the Government. This was the core criterion, against which to staff this Government. We need to maintain a constant dialogue with the public; we can't bear the ministers or governors who have not visited places and are unaware of the local problems. Your are not directors in corporations, who trade and run their businesses at a stock exchange. Your are not just managers. You are those who have been appointed by people and therefore accountable before people. People are going to judge us not against the top ratings that we have, not against the fact that Georgia no longer awash with corruption (that indeed is a historic achievement of the Government and Parliament of Georgia) but ultimately against the food provision of each family, against the level of education of their children, and against the normal living standards given to socially vulnerable family members. This is the ultimate criterion, against which the performance of any government is judged and against which the Georgian society will measure our performance.
People want to have a responsive government. Being responsive to the needs of people involves hard and tireless work on the part of the Government that has no holidays and no time to slack off. People are expecting from you far more vigorous work and specific results. I'd like to wish you success in your service and promise that I will work just as hard together with you, concluded the President of Georgia.
Organizational Department of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia