2021-12-22
"During the pandemic you had to inter alia work on locating and delivering the vaccines and medical equipment for our citizens, on organising ad-hoc flights for Georgians stationed in various corners of the world and on all the rest related to our citizens and our country. Your support, your engagement was vital and in most cases decisive for our country, businesses and citizens. You demonstrated high-calibre professionalism in these difficult conditions, thereby serving as an example of solidarity and successful cooperation to the entire international community. You truly managed to achieve the impossible and I wish to once again express gratitude to all of you on behalf of our government and from me personally. I thank the Minister and each one of you" stated Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia at the Conference of Ambassadors representing the diplomatic corps of the country at an event held in a remote format.
The Head of Government of Georgia thanked the ambassadors of the country for their performance and contribution in the success of the country towards its foreign policy directions.
"This day is very important for us all. I wish to thank David Zalkaliani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and each one of you, engaged in making our country stronger. This virtual meeting of ours evidences that we are truly living in a much altered reality due to the global pandemic. We take into account this reality and acknowledge with sadness that we failed to have an opportunity of a meeting in person. Of course, this immense work together with our partners, your engagement and dedication is even more important today than has ever been before. Only with such engagement and common effort can we once and for all curb this pandemic, combat it and continue a normal course of life. Pandemic has demonstrated to us all the global challenges of international relations in the realm of security, economics and healthcare. I am confident that we will successfully overcome all the difficulties on the chosen path and by staying committed to values, together with our friends and partners to lead our country and our people to a peaceful end. I wish to refer to the year in a few words. It was quite a busy and difficult year, however I believe that irrespective of these challenges and problems, we have all had a rather successful year and it culminated in the exemplary elections. Local elections held on October 2, 2021 once again confirmed that our country is loyal to the democratic reforms and European path, NATO path and it is very important. Our population one again demonstrated that nobody wants disorder. On the contrary, our goal is to have a long-lasting peace, stability and development, so that every one of us focuses our energy and efforts on the advancement, prosperity to our people and - what is most important - unification of our country. We should now intensify our democratic reforms and position our country stronger on the international arena as a country of democratic development with a potential of financial, business and transit hub in the region. We should once again introduce our country to our friends and the entire world" stated Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia.
The Head of Government of Georgia referred to the 6th Eastern Partnership Summit as a most important event towards European integration. It was where a new and ambitious agenda was developed, short- and medium-term goals were defined and a new regional investment plan of the EU was presented for implementation.
According to the Prime Minister of Georgia, it is an unwavering will of the Government and - what is most important - of the Georgian people to accede to NATO. The Prime Minister of Georgia also referred to the problem of occupation and stressed that the main and grand dream and goal is to regain the territorial integrity and to de-occupy the country.
Irakli Garibashvili also spoke about the current situation in the region and Peaceful Neighbourhood Initiative, also focusing on the role of Georgia as a mediator.
The Head of Government of Georgia focused in his keynote speech on his new initiative of designing a socio-economic policy, restriction of online casinos and medication pricing.
"Under my instructions, we are already working on designing a new socio-economic policy, which will be made public soon. It is aimed at making very effective and efficient, productive steps. We also have very important plans related to the creation of new employment opportunities, adjustment of social policy, which is currently catastrophic and devastating, as we are simply losing our generations. People got used to unemployment and got victimised in real sense by this wrong, unhealthy social policy. It should change. I started to openly talk about it. Restriction of online casinos is also related to this goal. I wish to thank our Parliament and MPs as a draft law was passed with a third hearing in an accelerated manner today. Online casinos engage hundreds and thousands of people, who need to be shifted to other engagements. For your information, let me say that socially vulnerable people spent 1.5 billion on gambling. These are the socially vulnerable people, who got engaged in gambling because they had nothing else to do, failed to get employed and because the system simply scared them. They failed to work out of fear of losing social allowances. Malpractices like online casinos, gambling, drug addiction and others are their current occupation. One of our main directions will be reduction of prices on medication. We are actively working on this and expect to have a quick impact ultimately in the nearest 1-2 months. Afterwards, we should continue with our very important work. Under my instructions, we already developed 10-year plans and this is not a template promise. These are very detailed, specific and elaborated plans, which were designed by each line ministry. Every public institution worked in a very productive manner during the past 6 months and came up with long-term sectoral development plans broken down by annual specific vision statements. Our common goal should be progress to be reached by 2030 and even before that. Of course, we will advance every year. We should at least double our economy. Our main challenge and main difficulty to be overcome - which was failed by previous governments - is to overcome poverty and unemployment. It is our main ambition, our main motivation and we should deliver this. More jobs and greater prosperity needs to exist and stability with a long-term peace is most essential for this. It is ensured and guaranteed in the conditions of our rule" stated Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia.
The Head of Government of Georgia highlighted in this context a cooperation with one of the largest companies of the world - The Rotschild. It is aimed at transforming the country and positioning it as a regional financial hub.
"One of the interesting steps made towards this end is contracting one of the largest companies - The Rotschild. It is the second financial group in the world and first in Europe. One of its initiatives is to gradually transform Georgia and to position it as the Luxemburg of the East. It was one of their ideas and suggestions. It is also intended to transform the country and to position it as a financial hub of the region. We will also work towards attracting strategic investors and inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI), new financial resources into the country" added the Prime Minister of Georgia.
The Head of Government of Georgia also spoke about the significance of interaction with the Diaspora and their support, thereby noting that a number of significant initiatives are being designed towards this end.
Press Service of the Government Administration