Georgia: Saakashvili Says Switzerland Will Meet Singapore in Tbilisi

Call it the power of positive thinking: In a televised speech on March 9, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili predicted that Georgia will become the Switzerland of the Caucasus with "elements of Singapore."

Saakashvili claimed that Georgia increasingly shares traits with both countries as it allegedly advances toward becoming the transportation, tourism and financial hub of the Caucasus. The Georgian president was speaking at the opening of a new Turkish-Georgian school in the city of Batumi on Georgia's Black Sea coast.

To complete its transformation, the Caucasus state, more than 28,000 square kilometers larger than Switzerland, must create one of the best education systems in Europe, "like it was in Switzerland, like it was in Singapore," Rustavi-2 television station reported Saakashvili as saying.

"[T]hese are the most honorable citizens of the future Georgian Switzerland, the future Georgian Singapore, the future Georgian Dubai, the Georgian Hong Kong, and of the greatest Georgia of all times," Saakashvili proclaimed, indicating Georgian schoolchildren standing in rows behind him.

The government is also betting on the development of ski resorts and on Georgia's low-tax business environment, often touted by international financial organizations, to assist with the country's promised Swiss-Singaporean makeover.