Tbilisi Mayor: we need development, prosperity, progress, without peace, it’s impossible to think about any success

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze on Sunday said Georgia needed development, prosperity and progress and without peace, it was impossible to think about any success, in a meeting with young participants of the Shaori Youth Camp in the western country’s Racha region. 

“We can return our territories [Georgia’s Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia regions] only by peace, economic strength, wisdom and education", Kaladze noted and added that there was no alternative to “peace in the country and it needs peace more than ever”, the Tbilisi City Hall said.

At the meeting, which was attended by the Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and the Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and hosted by the Education Minister Giorgi Amilakhvari, he also highlighted the importance of youth programmes and a healthy lifestyle as “fundamentally important”, and said the Tbilisi City Hall specially arranged recreational spaces and parks in the capital city and other places to give everyone an opportunity for exercising, studying and resting.

“We need more multifunctional and green spaces to help young people have a healthy lifestyle. Not everyone needs to become a professional athlete, though, engagement in sports activities is important”, Kaladze pointed out, adding the City Hall planned further projects with the Education Ministry, and the public would be informed about it.

This year, the youth camps hosted about 4,500 young individuals with the financial support of the Georgian Ministry of Education. The participants had the opportunity to participate in various educational and sports activities, gatherings, and trainings on different topics.