Saakashvili: Stability Maintained

President Saakashvili said on July 12, that times when protesters were obstructing his and the government’s work “are gone” and that the people made choice “in favor of stability.”

In televised remarks made at a meeting with expatriate economists and banking professionals the President said “tens of thousands of jobs” had been lost in Georgia as a result of consequences of the global economic crisis and street protests in Georgia. A similar meeting with expatriate Georgian economists, working in various international corporations, was also held in February.

“The problem is that businessmen are scared; some really believed that the civil war would have erupted here; some really believed that the government would have been paralyzed; some really believed that the reforms would have been stopped,” Saakashvili said at the meeting at which a new economic plan elaborated by the government in cooperation with banking and construction sectors was discussed.

“Now it is time for everyone to realize that all the reforms will continue; Georgia is a stable country; we will not let anyone – and no one should have any illusion about it – to reverse the country’s development and to trigger destabilization; this is a matter of revenues for each family and I will not sacrifice the future of our families, which are in hardship, to impatient ambitions of some politicians. We are not going to compromise on fundamental issues.”

“Times when it was impossible to host an investor in a government building, because they were blocked [by protesters] and times when it was impossible to host an investor for a dinner in a restaurant, because of a crowd – not a crowd, some hooligans in fact – would come with loudspeakers not letting you to hold a meeting, are now gone,” he added.

In a separate televised meeting, held with governors of provinces also on Sunday, Saakashvili said that anticipation of turmoil and destabilization in Georgia “turned out to be a storm in a teacup.”

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