The Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, presented 10-year development action plan of the Ministry.
The presentation of the Action Plan was attended by the Prime Minister, representatives of the Georgian government and Parliament, diplomatic corps and other invited guests. The event was opened with a welcoming speech presented by the Prime Minister.
"First of all, I would like to start my speech with expressing gratitude, on behalf of myself and the whole team, the whole government, towards each police officer, for the heroic service that you perform on the daily basis. At the same time, this is the reason to be proud of, when it refers to serving our homeland, the society and safety of our citizens which requires huge responsibility. Herewith, I would like to point out that we tend to forget how risky it is to be a police officer. You literally have to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a state of constant stress, separated from your family, fighting crime, which requires a great deal of sacrifice. Let me take this opportunity to pay tribute to the memory of our deceased, hero policemen, to their families, to thank them once again for bringing up such heroes. The state is obliged to do everything possible to provide well-deserved social guarantees for each police officer and their families. The vision of our government, the ten-year development action plan of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be presented in this case by the Minister.
"We will pay maximum attention to the social guarantees of the policemen, and take good care of them and their families," - stated the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili at the presentation of the 10-year development action plan of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“Minister has a clearly defined vision, a plan on how to develop the agency under his subordination. There are a number of projects on infrastructure development, renewal of equipment and armament, creation of appropriate social guarantees for police officers. In order to achieve these goals, the government will do everything possible to support these projects, additional funds will be allocated from the budget to ensure that all mentioned projects and programs are funded.
Once again, I would like to express gratitude as an ordinary citizen, as the Head of the Government and former Minister of Internal Affairs. It is a great honor for me to have the opportunity of addressing you and I would like to thank you once again for your heroism, "- stated the Prime Minister, Irakli Gharibashvili.
During the presentation, Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri discussed in details the projects planned for the next 10 years aimed at capacity building of the agency and its further development, as well as the ongoing reforms that are actively implemented.
“The reforms that we had to deal with contained huge responsibilities, obliging not only ordinary police officers, but leadership as well.
It is worth mentioning that we managed to implement important reforms. Even today, the process of capacity building of police and implementation of reforms is still in process.
The 10-year strategic vision of structural development, based on modern trends and necessities, implies further development of already reformed system, the main pillar of which is a decent, contemporary, future and development-oriented police force"- stated Vakhtang Gomelauri.
According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, for the next 10-year period:
- Police forces will completely undergo trainings, a large-scale upgrade of special material and technical equipment will also take place. Within the framework of criminal police reform, the separation of investigative, district and operative lines will be completed by 2025;
- Till 2030, the creation of child-friendly spaces in the police departments of large cities will continue, as well as creation of specialized units for juvenile affairs throughout the country, except for the capital;
- Crime alert application will also be introduced, enabling users to provide data on the fact of violation to the relevant unit of the Ministry openly and anonymously as well;
- In the nearest future, Patrol Police service centers will be opened in Guria, Imereti and Shida Kartli regions, important reforms are in progress in the service agency as well;
- An important place in the 10-year action plan is secured for the reform and capacity building of the Border Police, for which several important projects are scheduled. All border sectors will be fully renovated, the state border will be completely equipped with contemporary technical means of border surveillance systems, Coast Guard will be further strengthened. All helicopters under the ownership of the Border Police will undergo a major renovation and upgrade. It is also planned to purchase two new helicopters for the Border Police;
- All border crossing points nationwide, including cities and highways will be fully covered up to 13,000 cameras of general vision, as well with so-called smart, cameras with face recognition system;
- Till 2030, 150 fire-rescue points will be built and renovated in accordance with modern standards;
- Creating decent social guarantees for police officers is a priority of the Ministry - Gradual increase of salaries will continue within ten-year period;
- More than 60 new buildings have already been built for different departments of the Ministry. Infrastructure projects are still planned for the next ten years.
The following facility buildings are planned to be constructed in the future: 30 police buildings; 20 Border Police buildings; 90 emergency situations special points; 2 temporary placement isolators; 1 forensic-criminalistics building; 2 facilities of the Special Tasks Department; MIA archive building; 1 building of Migration Department;
In the end, the Minister of Internal Affairs has outlined the contribution of the government and international partners in the successful implementation of the Ministry's projects and expressed his gratitude.
