President Saakashvili said in his New Year address to the nation that 2010 was "a turning point" for the country and wished the citizens "to continue moving forward united like a fist towards victorious Georgia" in following years.

Saakashvili said, that despite high rate of inflation and unemployment, "serious growth of economy, as well as investments in the Georgian economy has resumed" in 2010.

"This trend will definitely be continued in 2011 with even larger pace," he said in the recorded televised address on New Year’s Eve.

He said that 2010 was "a serious turning point" for the Georgian politics as it "moved from streets into the parliamentary chamber and into TV studios". He said the politics "became more civilized" and it became "based on dialogue."

"One part of politicians started doing openly what they have been doing previously covertly and it is very useful, because people have seen everything which was covert previously and everything has been unveiled and this is a very healthy process for the Georgian politics," he said.

"There was a serious turning point in the foreign policy. If in 2009 there still were some question marks, the term 'occupation' has eventually been established on the international arena [in 2010], which is a firm foundation for Georgia's future de-occupation and for Georgia's reunification. Our enemies' unimaginable attempts to put Georgia into isolation has suffered an absolute failure and we can boldly state that we have never had such unanimous support - despite this huge pressure - like we we had it in 2010. Of course we should further strengthen this support in following years."

He said the May 30 local elections were "very important" and added that the elections were "recognized by the entire world as a step forward in democracy" and "our people expressed support towards the course of the Rose Revolution."

He said that 2010 brought Georgia "many moments of pride" and listed, among others, winning a bid by Tbilisi to host European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in 2015. In what appeared to be a reference to allegations that Russia won its bid to host 2018 World Cup through bribery, Saakashvili said Tbilisi won its bid to host EYOF "really without fixing".

"Georgia managed to respond occupation and destruction with construction and development - not every nation is cable of doing it," Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili, who was standing on the background of medieval tower-houses in Mestia, highlighted importance of tourism infrastructure development projects, in particular one of combining ski resort in Mestia in high-mountainous region of Svaneti and resort on Black Sea coast in Anaklia.

"We should make the turning point launched in 2010 into larger success in 2011. We expect 6% economic growth next year, which means more investments, better business environment and more employment and what is the most important, it means continuation of our modernization - the path which will lead us to civilized world and turn us into its full-fledged members," Saakashvili said.