The President’s Press Speaker held the first traditional press briefing of 2012 and talked about the most important issues.
Manana Manjgaladze focused attention on the scheduled meeting between the Presidents of Georgia and the United States. According to her, despite the fact that the two Presidents have met before, this will be their first meeting within the scope of an official visit. As the Press Speaker noted, there will be diverse topics of discussion during the meeting.
According to Manana Manjgaladze, Mikheil Saakashvili and Barack Obama will discuss bilateral relations and the challenges of international security as well as the ways of addressing these issues.
“There are topics on which the Georgian side will focus attention. Some of them are part of the U.S. Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership. They will talk about the issues included in the charter such as defense, security, strengthening democratic reforms, cooperating in many spheres, economy, energy, trade, culture, and deepening the ties between the Georgian and American people.” – stated Manana Manjgaladze.
According to the Press Speaker, the support of the United States has had a decisive importance for last 20 years in the process of protecting the independence and sovereignty of Georgia, democratic reforms, and economic development as well as advancement on the road to membership of the country into NATO.
“Aside from the meeting between the Presidents, the audience with the heads of the Legislative and Executive branches of Government is also planned, including meetings with the US Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner. Other meetings will also be held and I can tell you that the visit will be very busy and diverse” – stated Manana Manjgaladaze – the Press Speaker of the President of Georgia.
After discussing international topics, Manana Manjgaladze moved on to domestic issues. She focused attention on the large scale healthcare reform, which is working efficiently. The Press Speaker summarized the first stage of the reforms implemented in the hospital sector and emphasized the statistical data.
“As of today, there have been 37 medical centers opened in the country. The number of ambulatory patients is 3,500, which means 70-90 patients per day. There have been up to 100 stationary patients, of which 45% used medical insurance. Up to 600 babies have been born in the newly opened clinics” – stated Manana Manjgaladze.
The Press Speaker noted that these numbers are the first indicators of the fact that the new hospitals have started functioning.
“Georgia is a unique country in this sense, because very important reforms are being implemented in the healthcare sphere. You will agree with me that it is hard to find a country, in which so many hospitals were opened in one year, but it has to be said that affordability and quality of healthcare remain our main goals” – stated Manjgaladze.
According to the Press Speaker of the President, basically a new healthcare system is being created in our country, which will have many obstacles and challenges, but the government of Georgia will work in a goal-oriented manner in order to gradually handle these problems.
“Kazbegi, Tsageri, Tianeti, and Tetri Tskaro will also have new medical centers in the near future. The process will be renewed in the next few days” noted Manana Manjgaladze.