2021-06-28
"Thank you, Mr. Chairman and honorable Members of Parliament!
First of all, thank you for the congratulations! I very much appreciate your kind wishes. During these days we have reviewed in detail the things we have done, along with important reforms and we have once again reminded the general public of where we have been, where we are and where we want to be. I have also presented in detail and outlined the basic parameters and contours of our long-term development, which, with our deep belief, will result in prosperity of our population, development and strengthening of our homeland.
Naturally, I have heard too many slanders, too many lies, too many manipulations. We understand this very well because we know who we are dealing with. MP Kobakhidze made a very correct assessment when he compared a force that has brought a lot of trouble in our country to a Scorpio. Friends, we should always remind ourselves first and talk about what our recent past has been. This does not mean that we should compare ourselves to the UNM and present ourselves as being good. We must rather remind ourselves, the population, once again that we have made too many mistakes in the past.
The 90s were repeatedly heard in this hall. Our young democracy is 30 years old. Too many tragic, fatal mistakes have been made by us, our people and the elites who have ruled the country for years. Let us say, then, what we have achieved over the years. In the 90s, after we regained independence the whole nation was, of course, united around a common great goal. It was a great idea of restoring the independence of our country, which we achieved, as the collapse of the Soviet Union collapsed, naturally. After that, by our irresponsible political elites, the country got involved in a civil war, a fratricidal war, we lost territories, we got a war in Abkhazia, in Samachablo. Our disconnection and the fragmentation of the nation have led to what I am now talking about.
A few weeks ago, the President of Lithuania was visiting Georgia, with whom I spoke very sadly about our recent past, and in between, we drew parallels with how the Baltic states went this way and how they achieved EU integration, EU membership, NATO membership. At that time, we remembered where we are today in Georgia and what mistakes we made. I remember very well him saying that the Lithuanian people were united, there was no fragmentation and the nation was not divided. This union has reached the desired outcome and enabled the Lithuanian people to become what Lithuania is today along with the Baltic States succeeding in becoming EU and NATO member states. They are strong states, but where are we today, my friends? Unfortunately, we are still where we were in the 90s, divided as before with hatred of each other, slander of each other and caught up in this endless quarrel.
What is happening in our reality at this time? Of course, what else should I have heard from my opponents here, if not, some absurd accusations, as if we presented a vision with no substance, while I elaborated in all directions. I reminded ourselves in detail once again of how much progress we have made in all directions in recent years. I am not saying that we are infallible. On the contrary, we have also made many mistakes, but we have not committed crimes, my friends. When we talk to opponents and when I shake hands, I mean the offenders, the previous government, the UNM. Of course, we remember well, we must remember, our voters and the population must remember that we have no right to repeat mistakes. We are deprived of the right to be mistaken again.
We have repeatedly recalled and mentioned the War of August 2008. I understand this is a very hard wound for them, but friends, this is your hard legacy. You lost 20 percent of the territory. The UNM - Saakashvili's government - led to the return of the Russian troops, thus legalizing the occupation of the country.
We must remind ourselves once again that for years, during the previous government, our citizens were constantly oppressed. Oppression, terror, torture, inhuman treatment in or outside prison, raping, etc. We, the Georgian Dream, have inherited the heaviest legacy. I am not talking about human rights or media freedom, which MP Talakvadze spoke about, which they are no longer interested in. We are talking about the independence of the judiciary, which until 2012 was a simple division of the prosecution. Whatever the prosecutor said, the judge would do. Today these people come out and ask us why Mr. Murusidze and others are still serving at courts of law. They have memorized several surnames and always refer to them. Gentlemen, sorry, but I am addressing you - the representatives of the UNM - why do you - the creators of this difficult past - still remain in politics?!
A lot was talked about here. MP Gotsiridze referred to stenciled words - truth, truth, truth - but all he did was a false talk! MP Gotsiridze, who is the creator of the coupon currency in the country. Do you remember coupons and couponing well?! This man is brave enough to be talking to us today. To top it all off, he tells us that the UNM has made more progress in agriculture than our government has. What more lies can we hear from you, MP Gotsiridze?!
The poverty rate was 37-38% before 2012, now it is 19-21%, which is by no means satisfactory. It is according to our vision, our plans, that we must achieve a halving of the poverty rate in the coming years. Unemployment was 26.7% in 2012, now we have 21% and of course we have to halve that in the coming years and we have to work very hard.
I can not leave MP Khazaradze's remarks and speech unattended. When MP Khazaradze talks about Mr. Ivanishvili, for comparison, I want to address him with facts and it is very unfortunate that he is not present at the plenary hall today. We the entire government have listened to all remarks here - one by one - listening carefully to you all. Mr. Ivanishvili has spent three billion dollars out of his pocket for our country and our citizens. MP Khazaradze spent three million dollars for the Anaklia project, which he calls the milestone project of the century. Today, MP Khazaradze and his group have gone to court, to a foreign court and how much does he claim from the country? 1.5 billion USD! He wants to grab away 1.5 billion USD from the country, from our people! This is the answer to your demagogy, my friends, and your vision is not the milestone project of the century MP Khazaradze. This is a project of the robbery of the century, my friends. When the government did everything, starting with the former Prime Minister and party chairman, Mr. Ivanishvili, then during my tenure as Prime Minister of Georgia, during all the prime ministers, this project had full support. The government spent 60 million GEL and committed another 300 million GEL. Lands were redeemed. Later 100 million USD was also secured, but implementation of the project was deferred four times. If you go to Anaklia today, you will see that there are hills of sand and people cannot breathe on the ground, because they started some work, which, according to my information, is worth three million dollars, but nothing has been done. MP Khazaradze and his group are saying that 80 million was spent. Suppose they have indeed spent this much, but they are still claiming 1.5 billion from our impoverished country as MP Vashadze would say. And we are a poor country indeed. What are we talking about? This much hypocrisy and false talk is destructive, my friends! It is destructive for our country and our citizens.
It struck my ears that many of you, including MP Vashadze and MP Charkviani, referred to the country with the following phrases: most unhappy country, rotten country - I dare to say - and so on. Don't you love this country, my friends? How do you talk about our state in that manner at all?!
We, of course, have a great desire to unite. With such an attitude I just do not understand, I do not see the prospects of cooperation with this opposition - the UNM. The country has been in sabotage for 6 months, while giving no answer to our citizens on why they damaged our state. Do you know what our American and European friends are telling me? That they are tired of the complaints coming from the leaders of the UNM about us, not specifically about me or the leaders, but about the problems in the country. In fact, they claim that something terrible is happening here. We have given a few examples, but they openly state that the country is not yet ready to become a member of NATO. We reminded them that they insisted on not giving a visa-free regime to our country, to our citizens, to their fellow citizens. We have still achieved this, my friends, and we will achieve even more, despite your harmful policies. I will not shy away from saying this: it is a harm and you must end this harm! You must end it because that is how a country cannot develop.
It has been said here that foreign direct investments have declined and so they are. Let me remind you that in January, MP Melia - who for some reason does not come to work, but I understand him, it would be difficult to be here, as we are in the plenary hall - kept saying that there must be a revolution in the spring. Why do they say that? Because they do not want investors to have a sense of predictability and stability. I did not recall the 90s and the war of 2008 for no reason. Main thing that everyone needs - our citizens, our people and the foreigners who live here, as well as the investors who are going to make money in our country - is political stability. The only force, and I will always remind these people, who have provided a real lasting peace and stability during these 30 years, is the Georgian Dream. When in our country, despite these harmful policies and their continuous sabotage, we still maintain peace and the stable development of our country. There are many questions and along with this demagogy and false talk, of course, there is a lot of slander. What is the main achievement of the Georgian Dream? October 1st is a major achievement in my opinion when the entire population of the country has actually been liberated from your oppressive regime.
Yesterday, for example, on June 27, it was 7th anniversary of the Association Agreement we signed with the EU and achieved a visa-free regime, free trade. In all areas, be it human rights, healthcare, education, sports or culture, we actually depoliticized and strengthened the police, strengthened the security service, strengthened the military - we have tangible progress in all areas. Is that enough? Of course, not. I noted in my speech that despite all this, our main challenge is the poverty of our population, of our citizens, my friends.
More than half a million today receive social allowances from the state to survive. 180 000 of them are children. Under these conditions, they have absolutely no interest in the welfare, stability of our citizens, other than their personal ego. It is because of personal interests that everything happens. What MP Khazaradze said was all about his personal interests. What MP Vashadze said was also from the realm of his personal ambitions. Of course, I am not talking about the UNM and their personal ambitions or the personal intentions of their leader, who is going against everything in our country. He will destroy this country, sell it again, hand it over to enemies, lead to additional occupation of territories in order to regain power. You will never see it coming, my friends.
I feel very awkward because I still have to talk about their political legacy. I have talked a lot about our long-term vision, but we must not forget how we came to be today. On the one hand, we must always remember the past in order to indemnify our citizens, our population, our people from repeated mistakes. On the other hand, where we are today and where we want to be - this is our vision, this is the vision of the government, our policy and I want to thank the Parliament of Georgia, every MP who stands by us - the government. As a united team, I believe we can do a lot together.
Naturally, there are many challenges. Once again, I want to repeat that a number of questions were asked about the pandemic and vaccination. Even though I said that a million doses of vaccines will arrive in 2-3 days. Another million will be supplied by Pfizer, then another million from the Chinese manufacturer, but demagogy still continues and they keep lying that the government has no plan of vaccination or the other. Let me remind you that we have a system from A to Z, including teams of doctors who have a schedule to vaccinate up to 20 000 - 30 000 people a day. We are actively working in this direction. From the COVAX platform, on which the government was dependent before I was appointed, there was some delay, and you know that even the European countries, the powerful states, had many delays in the delivery of vaccines. Then we changed our approach when I was appointed, and we got actively involved in the process together with the Minister of Health. We talked to the CEO of Pfizer in person, and we also had direct talks and correspondence with the Chinese authorities. We have achieved the result I told you.
As for economic recovery, I would like to reiterate that the fact that the economy is recovering rapidly gives us great optimism. In April we had a growth of up to 45%, in May we expect at least 25%, which gives us reason for great optimism.
These people, of course, understand it very well. Among them is MP Gotsiridze, who understands what it means pretty well. These pessimistic speeches of theirs serve only one thing - to somehow change and hinder these positive expectations.
This was the purpose of words uttered by MP Akhvlediani. This "grandiose" man has said that we, the government, are preparing to rig the self-government elections. It also serves to recreate some sense of instability.
I and our team as a whole - the government - guarantee that we will be as mobilized as possible - the entire parliamentary team, the entire majority, the Georgian Dream, of course - we will hold unprecedentedly transparent, open, free elections and our party will convincingly win in all municipalities.
I would like to once again thank our Parliamentary Majority, Chairman of our Party, Leaders of the Parliamentary Majority, Speaker and each Member of Parliament. I hope that we will continue cooperation with some part of the opposition in a constructive mode, of course. We are ready - the government is ready - to continue work in an open manner with you in order to alleviate the current difficulties experienced by our citizens as much as possible.
Our main vision in the field of infrastructure, agriculture, economy, advancement of local production, capacity building and development of the Georgian army, capacity building of the police is to develop the country in all directions by 2030 and it is not so long that we came to power. Some 8 years have passed, or 8-9 years, and we will have it all implemented.
When we get criticized by opponents, I want to remind them that no normal state stays away from looking far ahead and planning for the future, having a vision of long-term development.
I want to thank you once again and wish you peace and stability."