2018-02-07
I would like to wish our athletes success at the 23rd winter Olympics in Korea, in which a Georgian team of four will participate: Iason Abramashvili and Nino Tsiklauri in alpine skiing, Giorgi Saghoyan in luge, and Moris Kvitelashvili in figure skating. I would like to wish them success. Generally, the Olympic movement is extremely important in our country in terms of introducing healthy lifestyle, and we will make special effort to promote it, of course.
As you know, recently I visited Lausanne, Switzerland where I met with President Thomas Bach of the International Olympic Committee. We discussed prospects of hosting Winter Olympics in Georgia in the future. In early March, the President will delegate a group to Georgia to study the state of affairs on the ground, after which we will produce an action plan and implement it step by step. I believe that we should aim for 2030, adopting a very important and ambitious plan in order to prepare the country for an international contest of this magnitude.
I understand well how important it is to the whole country, and I would like to urge the members of the Cabinet, and every relevant institution in Georgia, to be maximally realistic about it. It is a very concrete and ambitious plan, but unless we raise the bar, we will not be able to ensure the country's rapid development in this direction in such a short period. I believe everyone understands why it is so important. The very announcement of Olympic Games held, or possibly held, in Georgia is very important by itself. However, trust me, it is a very feasible plan if we rapidly implement it step by step, ensuring infrastructure in our winter destinations and engaging the whole country in winter sports. We have accomplished much in this direction, and it is strategically important to Georgia in a number of ways: it is about the health of our future generations, the involvement of our mountainous areas that make up 70% of our territory, employment for scores of people, especially in the mountainous regions, tourism as each new tourist means additional revenues for Georgian families. It is also about the development of industries closely ties to tourism, such as transport, agriculture, services, communications, and others. Thus, we are launching an endeavor with a tremendous spillover effect that will surely involve the whole country.
Prime MInister's Press Office