Addressing nation in a televised New Year message, Georgia’s PM Irakli Garibashvili said that 2014 was “historic” for Georgia as it made step towards European integration, which will be further pursued.

He stressed the need for “unity” within the society to make Georgia “strong European state” and also named economic growth among government’s main priorities for next year.
 
“2014 really was year of progress; of course there were mistakes too, but I believe that 2015 will be even better, I am convinced that better days are ahead of us,” Garibashvili said.

“2014 was really historic for our country. It was historic year, which took us even closer to Europe. Georgia’s future is with Europe. Our great ancestors aspired towards Europe; we aspire towards Europe too and are doing everything for this purpose,” he said.

“Foundation of success of the Georgian state is our unanimity, unity, as well as responsibility and commitment of each of us – the authorities and the people – towards the country,” the PM said. “We can do much more and today we need to stand together like never before in order to make our homeland strong European state.”

“My friends, as you know 2014 was difficult year for the world, for the entire region, but we managed to maintain stability and peace in our country in this difficult period. Of course this will be a foundation for future success.”

“We spare no effort for further economic growth, to create as many jobs as possible,” he continued. “Our government has substantially changed priorities and approaches – we made first steps towards creation of socially just state. We carried out important social, healthcare, education, economic, agriculture projects, which no one had paid attention to for years.”

“Of course we know that it is not enough; our people deserve more and we have to do much more,” Garibashvili said. “Regrettably we still have citizens who live in difficult conditions and our government is very much concerned about it.”

“That’s why economic development is our major task. Development of manufacturing and agriculture, better healthcare and better education – these are our major tasks in new year. We laid foundation for that in 2014, we put in motion various projects, which will become tangible from next year,” the PM said.

“We should open even more new enterprises, we should develop business even more, we should bring in more investments, create more jobs and we should have progress in all directions,” Garibashvili said.

In his address, the Georgian PM wished happy New Year to “our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers.”

“I believe that regardless of everything, we will still gain mutual confidence and take care of our common homeland, for the unification of our country,” Garibashvili said.