
Saakashvili: ‘GEL 500-600 mln is Invested in Mestia’
President Saakashvili said on January 8 that hundreds of millions were being invested in Svaneti to turn this high-mountainous region in north-west into major tourist destination in Georgia.
"Only in road [construction and rehabilitation] we are investing several hundreds of millions of Lari; in total some 500-600 million Lari is being invested in Mestia," he said and added that this investment would net "billions" in profit.
Starting from mid-2010 the government embarked on ambitious plan to turn Svaneti into the world-class ski resort, reconstructing an airfield in Svaneti’s main town of Mestia and launching regular flights, rehabilitating and illuminating medieval tower-houses there, making ski-ways and installing new ropeway with new chairlifts.
Saakashvili, who was speaking with reporters in Mestia after attending an outdoor concert marking "opening of season in Mestia", said that ongoing infrastructure projects in Mestia was "a miracle." What has been done so far is only "a drop in the sea," he said.
Saakashvili said there might be only couple of places in Switzerland like the one in Svaneti "in terms of skiing and mountains", otherwise, "without any exaggeration, there is no place like this anywhere else in Europe."
Speaking at a government meeting in Mestia in December, Saakashvili called on businessmen "to open eyes" and to invest in construction of hotels in Svaneti, which, as Saakashvili said, would host at least 500,000 tourists in four years.
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