Saakashvili: ‘Singapore, Estonia – Examples for Georgia’
President Saakashvili reiterated on February 1 that Georgia should follow Singapore’s path of development and added that Estonia was also an example.
"I am often saying that Georgia should follow suit of Singapore and Georgia follows Estonia’s suit in many things," he said in televised speech at vocational education and training center in eastern region of Kakheti.
"We are often told by the Europeans: ‘Why are you fixated on Singapore; there is totally different situation, there was absolutely different regime; your country is moving on the path of the European democracy’ – and that’s true, but democracy does not mean instability," Saakashvili said.
"We say we learn from Singapore and Estonia. Singapore was the country, or to say more precisely, a small town. It lived much poorly than we do. It is smaller than Tbilisi by size or maybe of the same size. It has seven square kilometers of access to the sea – much less than we have and It was surrounded by hostile environment – by big states, which were all ready to swallow up this small country, which had neither agricultural lands, nor potable and irrigation water and generally, its situation was absolutely hopeless, it had no natural resources either. But this country managed to become one of the richest countries in the world. Then what the hell is happening with Georgia? We have such land, such natural resources, such nature and such talented people," he said.
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