Georgia’s PM sums up social achievements of past two years

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has presented a report summarising the achievements his Government has made in the past two years.

In his speech this afternoon, Garibashvili said healthcare, education and social issues were his Government’s main priorities since the ruling Georgian Dream coalition came into power in 2012.

The PM noted the universal insurance program was one of the major achievements in the country’s health sector, in which every citizen of Georgia was insured. Currently, almost 3 million Georgian citizens used this benefit, Garibashvili said.

We built and equipped 82 medical clinics in regions of Georgia and increased the salary of rural doctors and nurses by 30 percent, Garibashvili noted.

A modern university clinic also will be constructed in Zugdidi, in Georgia’s west. This clinic will equipped with modern technology and will offer "great opportunities” not for only people in the Samegrelo region but for Abkhazians too, he said.

On another note, since Georgian Dream came into power, treatment of Hepatitis C had been made completely free for prisoners and reduced price for the wider community. The PM said the Government had allocated 6 million GEL from the state budget to cure prisoners suffering from Hepatitis C. To date 173 prisoners have been cured of the disease.

He also pointed out the importance of the recently established Solidarity Fund, a charity fund that supported people in need, including cancer patients. Funds would also go towards covering the cost of children’s expensive medical treatments.

The Solidarity Fund was created following the PM’s initiative with the aim of allowing the public and private sector to collaborate and donate funds and direct the aid towards priority social needs.

Over two months the Solidarity Fund has raised almost two million GEL. It has already funded the treatment of 25 children with cancer. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this invaluable initiative, the leader said in his speech.

Issues facing refugees from Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region (so-called South Ossetia) were also highlighted by the Prime Minister. Garibashvili said his Government’s goal was for no refugees to remain without homes.

To combat this, 11,000 refugees had been offered residential houses and 4,000 refugee families were gifted apartments.

Furthermore, refugees’ welfare allowance has doubled in the past two years, Garibashvili said. Instead of 23 GEL, refugees now received 46 GEL in financial assistance per month.

In addition, Georgia’s Prime Minister summarised the achievements made in Georgia’s educational sector in the past two years. He emphasized that this was the first time secondary education expenses had decreased through the Government’s actions of giving pupils necessary educational books.

Besides this, free school transport now served 53,000 pupils in Georgia.

Special school buses were appointed to children living in the mountainous regions of Georgia, where going to and from school posed big problems, Garibashvili said.