Zurab Noghaideli

Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli

Zurab Noghaideli (Georgian: ზურაბ ნოღაიდელი) (born October 22 1964) is the current Prime Minister of Georgia.

1 Early life and career
2 Parliament
3 Minister of Finances
4 Prime Minister
5 The Cabinet
6 References

Early life and career

Born in the coastal town of Kobuleti in the southwestern region of Ajaria, Noghaideli graduated from the Moscow State University with a diploma in Physics in 1987. Before entering into national politics, he worked for the Institute of Geography of the Georgian Academy of Sciences between 1988-1992. In 1989-1990, he was also trained at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of Estonia.

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Parliament

He started his political carrier together with his friend, Zurab Zhvania, in the Greens Party of Georgia in early 1990s. Noghaideli became a deputy in the Parliament of Georgia in 1992, elected following the overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, and chaired the Parliamentary Committee on Environment Protection and Natural Resources during 1992-1995. He was again member of the successor Parliaments in 1995-1999 and 1999-2000, when he chaired the Parliamentary Tax and Income Committee.

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Minister of Finances

He joined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze in the capacity of Minister of Finance in May 2000. During these years, he was considered a member of a political team of young reformists headed by Zurab Zhvania and Mikheil Saakashvili and proved to be quite an effective minister.

In 2001, he left the President-run Union of Citizens of Georgia party which he had joined in 1995. He was sacked, in 2002, without explanation, though it appears that he had intended to resign in protest against the policies of Shevardnadze’s increasingly corrupted government (as the Minister of Justice Mikheil Saakashvili did a year before).

In a brief period of 2002-2003, he was involved in banking and investment ventures.

After Shevardnadze was ousted in the Rose Revolution of November 21-November 23, 2003, Noghaideli returned to government as the economic adviser to the acting president, Nino Burjanadze. He was re-appointed to his old post as Minister of Finance in February 2004 in the government of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.

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Prime Minister

President Mikhail Saakashvili nominated Noghaideli for the post of Prime Minister on February 11 2005 following the untimely death of Zhvania. He was confirmed by the Georgian Parliament on February 17 2005 by a vote of 175 to 24, and was sworn in immediately. Noghaideli is not a member of any party and is regarded as a technocrat with a tough approach to the corruption that plagues Georgia's economy.

Noghaideli is married and has one child.

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