Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili congratulated the nation on the New Year.

Below is the official translation of PM’s New Year message as delivered by his office:

“My Fellow Citizens!

Happy New Year!

I wish this year to bring progress, success, unity, prosperity and greater development for our people and homeland!

We welcome this New Year with hopes of our wishes coming true and I would first of all wish this New Year to bring common peace and end of pandemic on the earth so that people get back to normal life throughout the world and we all succeed in looking forward, thinking about future, development, revival, renewal and implementation of new and ambitious projects.

2021 was a year full of challenges, political turmoil, difficulties caused by the pandemic in various directions and more – many tragedies borne by losses of human lives. Sadly, we lost many citizens of our country in the fight against the virus and I once again express my grief for the loss of each and every human life.

However, last year was also marked with success stories in various directions: our country did not stop progressing for a minute and significant achievements were made both at local and international levels.

After gaining victory in the elections, we need a new approach of governance for the advancement and greater success of our country, which implies progress and quick development in every direction. This new drive and approach requires brave and efficient decisions and we are starting this New Year with this very approach.

New Year will give a stronger impetus to our performance. This will primarily apply to the economic dimension. Last year was successful and recovery of the national economy commenced with a faster than expected pace and Georgia leads not only within the region, but throughout Europe according to the economic growth indicator. Nevertheless, we are not getting satisfied with the already achieved, of course. We need more. More accelerated development and greater prosperity is needed and we shall bring it to our country and our people. We will be creating new employment opportunities in the New Year and we should reduce poverty as well. Advancement and progress will be witnessed in every direction. We should succeed in making tomorrow a better day.

Unified Georgia with a strong economy – a strong sovereign country – should become our prime goal. It is possible and we are capable of achieving it! With our unity, consistency and hard work, Georgia will undeniably become such a strong sovereign country.

New Year always brings new hopes and with this very hope I wish to wish Happy New Year to our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers and sisters in 2022. I crave for the New Year to be a breakthrough in our relations, so that we get closer to each other and live happily together in a developed and unified Georgia.

I wish to particularly wish Happy New Year with great respect and admiration to our healthcare professionals – every doctor, nurse and caregiver – people, who work literally day and night, without a break, with great stamina and courage, no fear whatsoever and tremendous heroism in the interests of our people by protecting their health and lives in these difficult times.

I want to wish Happy New Year to everyone living far from our homeland, but celebrating this day with us all. I wish to greet and welcome our cherished emigrants from here and wish them to return home soon to embrace their families and motherland.

I particularly wish Happy Holidays to our praiseworthy policemen, our heroic military servicemen, our officers – everyone serving as a role model of defence to our future generations.

I wish Happy New Year to every civil servant – every person in the public administration – who made the success and strength of our sovereign country with their sterling performance and dedication.

I wish Happy New Year to our youth – outstanding, progressive, talented generation – and wish them every success in their future life. I wish Happy New Year to teachers and professors – educators of our youth – hereby pledging that we will continue rewarding them in future as well. I would wish the New Year to bring more joy and happiness to them all.

I wish Happy New Year with profound reverence to our elderly – our pensioners and veterans – wishing them vigour and sound health. It is our duty to care for them and we will spare no effort in doing this.

New Year and hope for the future give us faith and strength in serving our cherished homeland with greater daring, dedication, sincerity and admiration!

Once again, let me wish you all a Happy New Year!

God bless and guard us all!”