Mega-project for Georgian modernization

Mikhail Saakashvili truly deserves his reputation as one of the most extravagant world leaders. He was elected President at the age of 36, and the energy, ingenuity and resourcefulness he demonstrates in the promotion of the country’s modernization amazes everyone. And Saakashvili has managed to achieve great progress in the sphere of the economy over the past 7 years.

Saakashvili not only managed to increase the country’s budget eight-fold, he also chose the right priorities: instead of trying to revive the heavy industries of Soviet times, he gave the ‘green light’ to minor branches of industry and services, like agriculture and tourism.

Tourism development is at the top of the presidential administration’s agenda today. And even the efforts in the field of agriculture are connected to tourism development: Georgia can’t compete on the world food market, but it can provide produce for tourists. And to increase the flow of foreign tourists to the country, the Georgian leader launched a PR-drive that gets more and more exotic. Its extravagance, however, doesn’t stop it from being efficient.

Recently, the President called a government meeting near Lake Kvareli – one of the most beautiful in the Caucasus – and that boosted tourist flow to the lake’s recreational complex three-fold. The next extravagant meeting was held in the Karst caves of Sataplia, 10 meters below the surface – and after this was broadcast the site, perfect for tourists, became widely-known. (By the way, there are caverns as beautiful as Sataplia in Abkhazia, but the Abkhaz leader is obviously less creative than his Georgian rival).

After the Sataplia cave, Saakashvili visited the Abasha gorge and rafted the river bearing the same name as the gorge. The President himself suggested that tourists visit the Adjaria coast in autumn, saying “it’s better than Nice”. And from Batumi, Saakashvili travelled to the highlands of Svanetia to open a year-round ski resort there, which he expects to eclipse Courchevel. A special airport has already been opened there, also inaugurated by the President himself. The president has granted tourism investors unprecedented benefits.

For example, the construction companies that built hotels in Kobuleti
and Anaklia are free from all basic axes for 15 years. Moreover, the state offers them land for free and constructs communication networks itself.

As a result, the number of foreign tourists has risen from 500,000 to 1.5 million over the past few years. Now the President wants to raise the figure to 5 million, to catch up with the world’s most famous resorts.

Perhaps this figure is not that unattainable, if relations between Georgia and Russia ameliorate: a lot of Russians remember the beauties of Georgian land and would like to visit it.

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi, exclusively to VK